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THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS 
SERIES. 

BY ELIZABETH W. CHAMPNEY. 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS ABROAD. 
THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN ENGLAND. 
THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 
THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN ITALY. 
THREE VASSAR GIRLS ON THE RHINE. 
THREE VASSAR GIRLS A T HOME. 
THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN ERAA T CE. 
THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN RUSSIA AND 

TURKEY. 
THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN SWITZERLAND. 
THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



ESTES AND LAUFJAT, Publishers, 

BOSTON, MASS. 




AFTER THE STORM ON THE ORTLER SPITZ. 



Three Vassar Girls 



IN THE TYROL 



BY 






y 



ELIZABETH W.' CHAMPNEY 



AUTHOR OF 



A NEGLECTED CORNER OF EUROPE," "THREE VASSAR GIRLS ABROAD, 
"THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN ENGLAND," ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED BY "CHAMP" AND OTHERS 




BOSTON 

ESTES AND LAURIAT 
PUBLISHERS 



op /* 



9 *■ 
y o 



Copyright, 1891, • 
By. Estes and Lauriat. 

All Rights Reserved. 




SKitfoersitg Press: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



CONTENTS. 



» ■ 

■Chapter Page 

I. The Three Friends n 

II. No Chaperon „ . „ . „ 24 

III. How the Plan Worked 37 

IV. Lago Maggiore 65 

V. Valerie 91 

VI. Higher Altitudes 113 

VII. Ober Ammergau 130 

VIII. In the Tyrol. — The Council of Trent. — Startling News . . . . 151 

IX. Meran and its Gastles 166 

X. Adlersruhe and the Ortler Spitz 179 

XL At Innsbruck 209 

XII. An Excursion in the Bavarian and Austrian Tyrol. — Three Ba- 
varian Castles. — The Zillerthal. — Home Again 221 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 
After Storm on Ortler Spitz . Frontispiece. 

Dorothy 12 

John . . 15 

Elsie 21 

Judge Austin 25 

Gilbert Austin 26 

" Yumpy, yumpy, yah ! " 28 

Dorothy at the Concert ..... 29 

The Hollow Way at Kiissnacht ... 31 

Caroline Ponsonby 33 

On the Veranda '34 

The Burgenstock from the footpath be- 
tween Vitznau and Gersau ... 39 
The Amateur Photographer . . . . 42 

Gersau, Lake of Lucerne 43 

Trieb, Lake of Lucerne 47 

Gladys . . . .] 49 

En Route for Italy 50 

On the Axenstrasse, Lake of Lucerne . 51 
" Wonderful Successions of Twists and 

Turns" 55 

The False Aunt Jane 58 

Gorge of the Ticino. Airolo .... 59 

" Poor John ! " . 62 

The Piotta Gorge on the St. Gotthard 

Road 63 

A Turin Cigar 66 

Mortuary Chapel in the St. Gotthard . 67 



Page 

Count Farniente 70 

Donio D'Ossola 71 

Mrs. Irving 73 

Pallanza, Lago Maggiore 75 

Boats on Lago Maggiore 79 

Isola Bella 82 

Fishermen on the Lake 85 

An Italian Lake . 87 

Scenery in the Tyrol . . . -92 

Interior of the Church of the Franciscans 

at Innsbruck 95 

A Ruined Castle in the Tyrol .... 99 

Ready for America 102 

The Countess 103 

The Ancestral Castle ...... 105 

On the Road to Ober Ammergau . . 109 

The Ortler Spitz 116 

Monte Rosa, from the Monte Moro . . 117 

Chapel in the Rock ....... 122 

Tyrolese Scenery 125 

The Count's Letter 128 

Bound for Ober Ammergau . . . . 131 

Judas Iscariot 133 

The Proscenium 134 

The Entry into Jerusalem 135 

Gethsemane . 135 

Ordering the Passover 136 

Before Herod 137 



IO 



ILL USTRA TIONS. 



Page 

The Crucifixion 138 

Calvary 144 

The Ascension 145 

John 146 

Barabbas 147 

Gilbert Austin makes a Magnanimous 

Proposition 149 

Tyrolese Headgear 152 

Street-cleaning in Trent 153 

Father Pacifico 154 

Among the Mountains of the Tyrol . . 159 

Aunt Jane 167 

In the Church at Botzen 168 

Off for a Walk 170 

A Tyrolese Mountaineer 181 

Wanda 182 

The Summit of the Ortler, from Franzens- 

hohe 183 

Mine Host 186 



Page 

Father Pacifico Again 188 

Old Baths of Bormio 189 

Arrival at the Paverhutte Alte Sulden . 193 

Guides 195 

A Young Adler . 196 

Way from the Paverhutte to the Ortler 

Spitz 197 

The Ortler Spitz 201 

The Storm in the Mountains . . . . 205 

Judge Austin 210 

Valerie 212 

"Bat!" ,218 

Mary , 222 

Fisher Cottages at Frauenwbrth . . 227 

Kbnigssee 230 

An Unexpected Meeting 232 

" She was perfectly self-possessed v " . . 233 

John demoralized 237 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



CHAPTER I, 



THE THREE FRIENDS. 




*§jj||g|yFgHEY were three friends at college, — or rather they 
formed a triangle containing two friendships and 
two enmities. Valerie and Dorothy each loved 
Elsie, and were equally beloved by her ; but Valerie 
and Dorothy were not friends. They were each 
jealous of Elsie's fondness for the other; and 
when Valerie opened her friend's door and found Dorothy cozily 
established in the great arm-chair, she invariably made a pretext of 
having come to borrow a book or to inquire about a lesson, and this 
errand accomplished, hurried away. Dorothy felt the avoidance, and 
attributed it to scorn, whereas it was simply owing to Valerie's 
sensitive dread of Dorothy's sarcastic remarks. For Dorothy could 
be cruelly sarcastic in a perfectly well-bred way, barbing her shafts 
with exaggerated politeness which caused her victim to bleed inwardly 
while it left no pretext for grievance. Dorothy could not explain 
very clearly why she disliked Valerie, though Elsie had often chal- 
lenged her to sfive a reason for her dislike. At one time she had 



12 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



She is so 



asserted that it was because Valerie was a foreigner. 
Dutchy," Dorothy had said. 

" 'Valerie is Dutch 

And behaves as such ; ' 

her ways are not our ways nor are her ideas our ideas." 

" She is no more Dutch than you are," Elsie had replied with 

some warmth ; " she is an Aus- 
trian, and her home is at Inns- 
bruck in the Tyrol, miles away 
from the Netherlands." 

" I merely used the term 
' Dutch ' as typical of the entire 
Germanic race, my dear. I feel 
as Caesar did, — that whether 
they were Belgians, Helvetians, 
or Rhaetians does n't particularly 
matter ; they are all barbarians." 
" Oh, Dorothy ! " 
" Say un-American, if the other 
word offends you. Their life 
and thought and aims are all so 
different from ours ; and Valerie 
is a countess, or at least her fa- 

DOROTHY. ' 

ther is a count, and I despise that 
sort of thing. It is entirely contrary to our republican institutions." 

" But it is not Valerie's fault that her father is the Count von 
Hohenberg; I am sure we would never have known the fact from 
her. She has done her best to become American by accompany- 
ing her father on his diplomatic mission to this country, and she 
shows her appreciation of our institutions by choosing to be educated 
at Vassar instead of in an Austrian convent." 

All this was unanswerable ; and Dorothy was obliged to admit 




THE THREE FRIENDS. 



13 



that Valerie took great pains to become American, and that she 
had so far conquered the difficulties of the foreign language that her 
English was scrupulously correct, almost bookish, displaying only by a 
slight accent and occasional mispronunciation that it was an acquired 
language. Dorothys paraded disdain for titles had for its root a little 
feeling of envy, and she fancied Valerie arrogant because in Valerie's 
place she would herself have been so. Dorothy was just enough to 
admit many excellencies in Valerie. She shone especially in composi- 
tion ; her essays were models of rhetoric, being remarkable for their 
graceful style and a purity of language marked by an absence of com- 
monplace expressions. It was English learned from reading the best 
authors, and not the conversational English of the day. Dorothy 
was also a fine essayist. Her productions were distinguished by 
originality of conception and a brilliant way of putting things. She 
shone in incisive, withering satire, and would have sacrificed her best 
friend for the sake of an epigram. The two girls disputed the head 
of their class, and divided honors in nearly every competition. 

This rivalry was particularly galling to Dorothy. " It is not that 
I can't bear to be excelled," she said to Elsie. " I would n't mind 
it if it were you, dear ; but to know that I am only on a par with 
Dutchy, who is handicapped with the difficulty of working in a 
foreign language, is too humiliating. I shall always hate her until 
I can definitely excel her; then I shall look upon her with calm 
indifference." 

Valerie, on the other hand, admired Dorothy, and had made timid 
efforts to gain her friendship, but had been cut to the quick by the 
repulses with which Dorothy had met her advances. Elsie had made 
many attempts at reconciliation, but without success. Valerie had 
even Once declared that Elsie must choose between them ; but Elsie 
had assured her that on no consideration would she give up the 
friendship of either, and Valerie was fain to content herself with a 
divided heart. So the days passed, not always comfortably for Elsie, 



14 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

who sometimes laughingly likened herself to the bumper destined 
to soften the shock between two railway cars. A hope of finally 
making the two friends animated her courage and stimulated her 
invention. 

At first she invited them on excursions in company, adroitly 
arranging that they must occupy the same seat in the carriage or 
boat, or else she walked with an arm about the waist of each. Some- 
times the two girls would converse in a manner encouraging to 
Elsie's desires ; but more frequently they ignored each other's pres- 
ence, and talked only with Elsie. The little peacemaker had had 
great hopes of a pet scheme the preceding summer, when she invited 
the rivals to visit her at her home in the Catskills. But Dorothy 
had heard that Valerie was also to be a guest, and had waited until 
Valerie's visit was over before putting in an appearance. This had 
been a great disappointment to Elsie, for she had relied on the help 
of her elder brother John, to whom she had confided the situation, 
to bring about a better understanding between her friends. John 
was the best-natured, best-intentioned fellow in the world ; but man- 
like, he muddled everything. He had not been particularly attracted 
to Valerie, and he did admire wilful, bewitching Dorothy ; but to aid 
his sister's plans, it happened that his conversation with the latter 
turned chiefly on the admirable qualities of Miss Hohenberg, and 
Dorothy imagined him deeply interested in her rival. She was not 
a weakly romantic girl, but she thoroughly admired and liked honest 
John. She told herself that this was just the sort of man to whom 
a woman could safely trust her happiness for life, and again a spark 
of envy was added to the pyre which was crackling around the feet 
of Valerie. She made no mean, underhand efforts to win him to 
herself during the long summer days when they were thrown to- 
gether. She told herself proudly that she did not care for him ; and 
she told John so as plainly by her manner, whenever, encouraged by 
a similarity of views, their conversation became more than usually 



THE THREE FRIENDS. 



15 



confidential, or his glance more admiring than seemed to her con- 
sistent with his supposed attachment to Valerie. 

The two families had been long acquainted. Mr. Thorne, Doro- 
thy's father, had great confidence in John Hartley's business ability and 
rectitude, and it was through his influence that the young man received 
that summer an appointment as paymaster of a western silver-mine. 

John was to leave in a few days to assume his duties, and he was 
full of enthusiasm in regard to the enterprise. Mr. Thorne came 
up to talk the matter over 
during the last days of 
Dorothy's visit. " The 
Company's stock is rising 
rapidly in the market," Mr. 
Thorne said to John dur- 
ing this conversation. " I 
think that I will invest 
ten thousand dollars in it 
for Dorothy. As you will 
be in a position to know 
the prospects of the mine, 
I will not buy the stock 
now, but will place the 
money subject to your or- 
der. This is all that I 
feel that I ought to leave 
Dorothy in justice to my duties to my other children ; and I give 
you power to look after her interests, to invest all or a part in the 
stock if you feel that it is perfectly safe, and to sell when you judge 
it advisable so to do." 

John's eyes glistened. " I am touched by your confidence in me, 
Mr. Thorne," he replied ; " I appreciate the responsibility, and I will 
be true to my trust." 




JOHN. 



1 6 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

Dorothy approved of the confidence which her father had re- 
posed in John. They had many conversations during her visit with 
Elsie, and she obtained an insight into his sterling character and 
noble aims. 

Dorothy was ambitious. She had a wild desire to excel, to do 
something grand and brilliant ; as she expressed it, " to make the 
most of life." 

They were talking on this subject during a horseback ride over 
a beautiful mountain-road. 

" I want to do something magnificent ! " Dorothy exclaimed, as 
they drew rein before a wide-stretching expanse of river and valley. 
" Life is so full of grand, wide opportunities. I could never be con- 
tent to live a little humdrum life ; I want to make my mark in some 
way, and I believe I shall." 

John looked at her in admiration. " I believe you will," he said. 

" And you," Dorothy asked, " have you never felt a desire to be 
famous ? " 

" Well, no," John replied, " not exactly, I mean to do my level 
best ; but I don't think it 's likely any one will ever hear of it, and I 
don't know that it matters. " 

" I think it matters a great deal ! " Dorothy exclaimed. " What 
is the use of living if we do not leave the world the richer for our 
having been here ? One might as well be a vegetable, — better, for 
a turnip does make the world richer." 

John passed his hand over his forehead. 

" You have given me something to think of, Miss Dorothy. 
With your view of life, you can't think the career of a paymaster a 
very noble one." 

" I suppose you will make money, and noble things can be done 
with wealth." 

" That 's so," said John. He was thinking deeply. Dorothy had 
stirred springs that she knew nothing of. Her own ambition was 



THE THREE FRIEXDS. Y j 

ignoble and cheap at this time compared with John's; but he looked 
at her through his own ideals, and said, " I shall at least be interested 
in watching your career, Miss Dorothy, and I have not the least 
doubt that you will do something magnificent. Of one thing you 
may be certain, — I will look after your money more sacredly than 
if it were my own. If I make nothing very remarkable of my own 
life, I shall feel that I am doing a little something in helping your 
career." He wanted to say more, but he did not dare to do so. 
The next day he left for Colorado, and shortly after Elsie and Dorothy 
returned to their duties at the college. 

Valerie was there, and their old intercourse with its mingled 
sweet and bitter went on as usual, until one day in early spring 
Valerie stepped into the chemical laboratory, where Elsie was work- 
ing out quantitative experiments, and entirely spoiled the result of 
one analysis by announcing that her father had been suddenly 
recalled to Austria, and that she must return with him. 

Elsie laid aside her'acid-stained apron, and with her arm about her 
friend walked out toward the grounds of the Floral Society, and up 
the steps of the beautiful new gymnasium into the rooms of the 
Philalethean Society. They were deserted at this hour, but they were 
the rooms which held the most cheerful associations for both Valerie 
and Elsie. They were both ardent supporters of their literary society, 
and really talented amateur actresses on the boards of their little 
theatre. They recalled different plays in which they had appeared 
together as they shifted the scenery in the little property-room. " I 
wonder what parts we will next play," Valerie said, as she picked up 
an Alsatian cap which she had once worn. 

" You will have some very brilliant role, doubtless," said Elsie ; 
" that of a princess or a duchess perhaps." 

" I never cared for such parts," Valerie replied. " You know I 
always took peasant characters by preference." 

"And how well you acted them, and what sport it is to act! 



1$ THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

Shakspeare says the world 's a stage, and I mean to carry my acting 
over into real life." 

Little did Elsie realize that from this very blunder was to come 
all the annoyance which she was to experience during the coming 
summer. Life is very real, and any " acting " is a great mistake. 

They talked on a long time together of their approaching separa- 
tion, promising, as girl friends do, never, never to forget each other. 

" And you must visit me next summer at my home in Innsbruck," 
Valerie said. " I want you to know the Tyrol ; it is the most beautiful 
country God ever made." 

" I will go if I possibly can," Elsie promised; " and you must keep 
up your studies and come back with me for our last year, so that we 
can graduate together." 

" This is my hope, Elsie dear ; and if you come to us, and my 
mother sees what kind of a girl Vassar training develops, I am sure 
that she will be willing for me to return with you. I must do it if only 
to keep my place in your affection, or else Dorothy will supplant me." 

" Never ! " Elsie cried. " You have each your own little corner in 
my heart, and before our college course is over I shall make you two 
girls love each other as dearly as I love you both." 

Valerie shook her head ; and at first it seemed as if her fears were 
likely to come true, for after her departure Elsie and Dorothy 
were uninterruptedly together, and grew more and more attached to 
each other. 

About this time an announcement was made in the Shakspeare 
class which awakened Dorothy's special interest. As it was the year 
of the representation of the Passion Play at Ober Ammergau the 
attention of the class had been directed to the miracle-plays of the 
Middle Ages, and an enthusiastic friend of the college had offered a 
special prize for the best essay on this subject written by an under- 
graduate of Vassar. 1 The prize was to consist of a gold medal, to be 

1 It is almost unnecessary to state that this contest is entirely imaginary. 



THE THREE FRIENDS. 



19 



awarded and presented at the next celebration of " Founder's Day," 
when the successful essay would be publicly read. 

From this time Dorothy haunted the library, devouring everything 
which she could find upon the subject. 

" I have all summer in which to write the essay," she confided to 
Elsie. " I have made voluminous notes, and if I can only throw them 
together in an original way I shall have something interesting." 

But as Dorothy's confidence in her probable success increased, 
there was mingled with it a vague dissatisfaction which was at first 
inexplicable to Elsie. The cause was made clear at last when, a few 
weeks before the close of the college for vacation, Dorothy asked for 
Valerie's address. 

" Do you intend writing her ? " Elsie asked in surprise. 

"Yes," Dorothy replied. " Some one ought to tell her of the com- 
petition ; it is not fair that she should not have an equal chance of 
success." 

" That is like you, Dorothy," Elsie exclaimed with admiration ; 
" but as Valerie is not now a member of the class, and may not return 
next year, it is possible that she is not eligible for the competition. 
Still such kindness from you cannot fail to touch her. Now, indeed, 
I begin to see what I have so long hoped for." 

Dorothy's face hardened. " Valerie will come back," she said, " and 
she must compete. I shall not care for the victory if she is not in the 
lists. This is the opportunity which I have waited for. You must not 
misunderstand me, Elsie. I do not inform Valerie of this prize through 
any affection for her or with any wish that she may obtain it ; but 
simply that I may have the satisfaction of proving my pre-eminence 
in a fair combat. I shall tell her so very plainly, I assure you." 

" Then you will hurt Valerie's feelings, and she will not accept the 
challenge." 

Dorothy's foot tapped the floor impatiently. " Then I will make 
no explanation of my motive, but simply send the information." 



20 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

" Do you realize, Dorothy, that Innsbruck is not far from Ober 
Ammergau, that Valerie will probably attend the representation of 
the Passion Play, and so will have a great advantage over you ? " 

" I realize it perfectly, and I have had my small temptations. You 
are not to think me better than I am. As I have not the same 
opportunity, my evil angel urged me not to write her of the competi- 
tion until after the performances are over. The tempter argued that 
it was not at all my business to inform her. Why should I feel obliged 
to do it ? She might hear of it in some other way. If she did not hear 
of it she might not attend the play, as so many people who live within 
hearing of the roar of Niagara never visit the falls. The chances and 
advantages seemed to counterbalance each other. If in going to the 
Tyrol she gained in an opportunity to hear the play, it was only fair 
that she should run the risk of not knowing her advantage. Why 
should I take pains to give her a better equipment for the contest 
than I could possibly have ? " 

" Dear Dorothy, you have had a hard struggle." 

"But that sort of reasoning did not satisfy me. ; I knew that a 
victory under such conditions would be no victory, and that I should 
never be able to look at myself in the glass if I were capable of any- 
thing so mean." » 

Elsie smiled. " It would be a pity to have to turn your mirror face 
to the wall, since you have adopted that elaborate style of arranging 
your hair. But don't think, Dorothy dear, that I do not appreciate 
your punctilious sense of honor. I admire you all the more for this 
glimpse into your character ; " and Elsie added in her own mind, " John 
shall know it just as soon as I can write him. — But, Dorothy," Elsie 
added aloud, " you must have the same chance that Valerie has. You 
must go to Europe with me this summer, You know I am to visit 
Valerie, and I am sure she would extend a warm welcome to you as 
well if—" 

Dorothy shook her head vigorously. 



THE THREE FRIENDS. 



21 



" Then I could leave you at Ober Ammergau while I went on to 
Innsbruck. Do come, Dorothy. Aunt Jane is going to the Tyrol 
to try the efficacy of the grape cure for her rheumatism, and I am 
to travel in her company. Mother is very particular about my being 
properly chaperoned, though what a self-reliant girl, clad in all the 
womanly dignity of Vassar, needs of a chaperon is more than 1 can 
make out. I am certain that 
I shall be more of a help to 
Aunt Jane than she can be 
to me. Come, Dorothy, we 
will have such s^ood times 
together." 

" It is just what I should 
like most to do, Elsie ; but I 
don't like to ask Father to 
spend so much money on 
me this summer. You know 
that Belle is to be married 
next month, and Harry has 
just entered the firm of 
Gold and Glitter, while I 
have still another year at 
College. 

" Father gave each of us FLSIE 

three last summer what he 

considered our share of his fortune. I could write your brother to sell 
some of my mining-stock, but I do not think Father would approve of 
that. Mother has wanted a cottage at the seashore for ever so long, 
and Father told her that if no new expenses were sprung upon him 
he would build her one this summer. It will be a great thing for 
the younger children as well as for mother; and we older ones 
have agreed not to ask for another thing, — so you see there is no 




22 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

hope of Europe for me." And Dorothy resolutely took up the 
novel " Quits," to read for a second time the Baroness Tautphoeus' 
description of the Passion Play. 

If Dorothy's conscience was relieved by this act of justice, her 
mind was not altogether at rest. She realized keenly that her rival 
had the advantage, and she worked with feverish impatience, tearing 
up page after page as soon as it was written. " Do what I can," she 
exclaimed despairingly, " I cannot make anything new out of the 
subject ! It is only a rehash of the encyclopedia. If I could only 
see the play, I might be able to set it forth in an original light. It 
makes me think of my little brother Charlie. His teacher gave him 
as a composition subject ' The Ancient Assyrians.' Of course he 
dug his essay out of books of reference, and it did seem rather 
unkind when his teacher complained that the composition was not 
very original. With such a subject what could the poor boy do ? 
If he had been required to write of something which had fallen 
under the range of his observation, the criticism might have been 
made with more justice. I begin to feel that there is no use in 
trying. I might as well give up." 

Just as Dorothy was in the depths of these gloomy reflections, 
she received a letter from Colorado, which ran as follows : — 

Chain Lightning Mines, May 30. 

DEAR MlSS THORNE, — Your mining stock is advancing rapidly in value. 
The prospects of the mine are booming, and the Company have declared an 
extra dividend to all stockholders. You will doubtless receive your share in 
a few days. I trust that you will be pleased with the amount. It is certainly 
a very neat sum when one considers the amount invested. 

You may trust me to keep a sharp lookout in regard to your interests. 

Elsie writes me that there is a possibility that you will accompany her on 
her European trip. Wishing you a safe voyage and much pleasure and profit 
on the other side, I am 

Faithfully yours, 

John Hartley. 



THE THREE FRIENDS. 



2 3 



" A dividend ! " Dorothy exclaimed ; " but it cannot be enough. 
Father said that he intended to pay my college expenses for me 
to the end of the chapter; but he expects me to make the income 
of my stock cover all my needs in the way of clothing, travelling, 
charity, and all luxuries of every kind. He wishes me to learn 
to manage my business affairs, and he thinks I ought to save a 
little from each year's income. I am afraid I can't afford the tour." 
The girls consulted various authorities, and worked busily with their 
pencils, casting up the probable cost ; and Dorothy came to the 
conclusion that to make the trip as she wished, and to leave plenty 
of margin for contingencies, she ought to have at least eight hun- 
dred dollars, — a thousand if she proposed to purchase her winter 
wardrobe and any presents in Paris. " I can hardly expect a divi- 
dend of ten per cent," Dorothy said ruefully, as she paused for an 
instant of suspense before opening the letter from the treasurer of 
the Company. Then she tore it open eagerly, and a narrow slip of 
pink paper fluttered out, — a check for fifteen hundred dollars. 



CHAPTER II. 



NO CHAPERON. 




UNT Jane accompanied the girls as far as Inter- 
laken, but as they had decided to preface their 
journeyings in the Tyrol by a brief visit to the 
Italian Lakes, she had gone directly on to Meran, 
and left them to make this side trip alone. 

Dorothy had a friend at Baveno on Lago Mag- 
giore, — a Mrs. Irving, who urged them to come to her for a visit, 
and to make this spot a centre for excursions. Before turning 
their faces southward, the girls had paused in the historic city of 
Lucerne. They interested themselves during the day in sight-see- 
ing, and in the evening listened to concerts provided for the guests 
of the hotel in the great central hall. During a pause in the first 
of these entertainments, Dorothy found herself seated beside a chatty 
old gentleman, evidently an American; for he was proud of his 
nationality, and had found nothing in Europe which was not in his 
opinion surpassed in America. 

"Talk about your Mont Blancs and your Grand Mulets," — he 
pronounced the latter name as though it were the fish mullets, — 
" they can't either of them hold a candle to Mount Hooker for 
actual measurement ; and for apparent grandeur, give me Pike's 
Peak or the Canon of the Arkansas. No, ma'am ; home produc- 
tions are good enough for me. Now, take the matter of girls ; there 



A'O CHAPERON. 



25 



isn't a country in Europe can beat the American variety. I knew 
the moment that you came into this room that you were an Ameri- 
can girl, and I said so to Gilbert, — that's my son, the young man 
in the light mustache and eye-glasses talking to that Italian count 




JUDGE AUSTIN. 

over there. By the way, I don't take much stock in that count, 
and I said so; but Gilbert says he is all right I said to Gilbert 
when you came into the room, ' Gilbert, there 's an American girl ; 
and it makes an old man's heart swell with patriotic pride just 



26 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



to see her walk across the floor. Did you ever see a marchioness 
do it better?' You see, Gilbert doesn't think much of foreign 
titles and so forth ; but I hope I have impressed one thing on 
his mind, and that is that he is not to present me with a foreign 
daUghter-in-law unless she is a real genuine true blue sprig of the 
nobility. No pretty peasant-girls for me ; I 've said it, and I '11 
stick to it." 

" Father, I assure you there is no cause for apprehension," 
remarked the young man in question ; for the old gentleman had 

become so much in earnest that he 
had not noticed the approach of his 
son. " I solemnly promise you not 
to marry a peasant, and there is 
no possibility that any lady of rank 
will ever become interested in me." 
" I don't know about that, Gil- 
bert," replied the old gentleman, 
regarding his son, fondly ; " you 
have made the acquaintance of one 
count already, and you must not 
forget to present that letter of in- 
troduction to the Count von 
Hohenberg when you reach Inns- 
bruck." 
Dorothy started. The Count von Hohenberg was Valerie's 
father, and she listened with more interest than she had hitherto 
felt as the old gentleman calmly continued his observations. 

" The count has a daughter that one might mistake for an 
American girl. I saw her once in Washington when her father 
was a member of the Foreign Legation, and I must admit that 
I have no fault to find with her. But pardon your old father's 
obliviousness, and let me present you to my young companion here, 




GILBERT AUSTIN. 



NO CHAPEROX. 



27 



a countrywoman of ours, I am proud to say. Allow me, miss, to in- 
troduce my son, Gilbert Austin, newly appointed United States 
Consul to Innsbruck. My name is Austin, too, naturally, — Judge 
Jonah Austin, ex-senator from Illinois. Now you know us, father 
and son, and I am happy to say that there is nothing in our history 
which I would be ashamed to have you know. It 's a clean record 
so far, though the Austins have always been in politics ; and it is 
an old joke that Austin babies never creep, — they begin their walk 
in life by running for office." 

It was impossible to resist the judge's frank good-humor ; and 
as Elsie approached at this juncture, .Dorothy, who was usually 
reticent to a fault, surprised herself by remarking, " Elsie, this gen- 
tleman is acquainted with our classmate, Valerie von Hohenberg." 

" Indeed ! " Elsie exclaimed with delight, " how small the world 
is ! We are continually meeting people who know friends of ours." 

" That is what I tell Gilbert. If you want to do anything dis- 
graceful with the hope of running away afterward to some country 
where you will not be known, you had better take tickets to the 
moon ; and even then you need n't feel safe, for our detective service 
will cable over a personal description, and like as not the first 
person you meet on stepping on the landing will be some enter- 
prising tourist from the States, who has already received a " New 
York Herald " giving a full account of the crime, while our Govern- 
ment will get out an extradition treaty with the Lunatics quicker 
than a wink, and have you back again in State's Prison for a term 
of years." 

All laughed; and Gilbert Austin asked, "How is it that Miss 
von Hohenberg, who I understand is an Austrian, was your class- 
mate ? You have been educated abroad?" 

Elsie explained, and the young man seemed much interested when 
she informed him that she was on her way to visit her friend. 

" Then we shall all probably meet at Innsbruck." 



28 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

" You may see Elsie there, but I shall certainly not visit the Hohen- 
bergs, even if I decide to go to the Tyrol," Dorothy replied with 
hauteur. 

The music, which had been interrupted, now began again. A 
quintette of male voices rendered various Italian songs, to the accpm- 




" YUMPY, YUMPY, YAH ! " 

paniment of violins, mandolins, and guitars. One glee played by the 
very plump Italians seemed especially amusing. " How provoking 
that I cannot understand the words," Dorothy remarked ; " that chorus 
with its repetition of something that sounds like ' Yumpy, yumpy, 
yah ! ' appears to be very jolly." 



NO CHAPERON. 



2 9 



" I will ask my friend, Count Farniente, to translate it for me. I 
am afraid my knowledge of Italian is not sufficient to render it 
smoothly." Before Dorothy could object, the young man had brought 
forward and introduced a dark-eyed, dark-whiskered gentleman, whom 
Dorothy and Elsie had already remarked as being quite a favorite 
among the ladies. The count spoke amusing English, but his French 
was perfect, his manners were elegant, and his conversation agreeable. 
He devoted himself exclusively to 
Dorothy during the remainder of 
the evening, while Elsie chatted 
with the Austins. At the close of 
the concert the company prome- 
naded for a time on the veranda, 
which overlooked the lake, and 
when they parted for the night the 



count asked if the 



younj 



ladies 




DOROTHY AT THE COXCERT. 



would honor him by joining in a 
driving party and picnic excursion 
which he had planned for the next 
day. The two girls looked at each 
other doubtfully, but Gilbert Aus- 
tin spoke up quickly, " You need not hesitate to accept. I saw you 
speaking with Mrs. Arthur Ponsonby this afternoon ; she chaperons 
the party, which is quite a large one, and both of her daughters are in 
it. The count drives the first coach, — he is an excellent whip, — 
and I shall conduct the second. I hope you will come." 

" Mrs. Ponsonby appears to me to be a colossus of even British 
propriety," said Dorothy. " I think, Elsie, we may venture to accept." 

The girls held a serious discussion over what it was best for 
Dorothy to wear, and decided on a pretty gray costume of velvet and 
cashmere which she had made in Paris, in direct imitation of one worn 
by a daughter of Carolus Duran in a portrait by her father, which she 



3Q THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

had seen at the exhibition in the Champ de Mars. Poor Elsie had no 
choice, for the dress which she would have liked to wear had been 
left at Interlaken, her modest little trunk having been exchanged for 
one of Aunt Jane's. They had discovered the mistake too late to 
rectify it, for Aunt Jane was not intending to stop at Lucerne, but had 
left that same afternoon for Meran, and it seemed best to keep the 
trunk until they could join her. Dorothy was profuse in her offers of 
her own clothing, but Elsie felt that she would be more at home in 
her own brown travelling-dress than in borrowed finery. 

The party was a very gay one. The greater part of the occupants 
of the hotel came to the doors and windows to see the start The 
grooms held the heads of the restive four-in-hand until the count took 
the reins. " He is a great sport," Dorothy heard Mrs. Ponsonby 
whisper to a timid young lady, " and often drives six horses." Servants 
of the hotel were busily stowing away hampers of good things. " I 
wonder who the count has asked to sit beside him," Mrs. Ponsonby 
queried, but her daughters could only assure her that they had not 
yet been invited. The good woman's curiosity was set at rest when 
the count presently handed Dorothy to the coveted seat on the box. 
She looked very pretty there, with the consciousness that she was the 
observed of all observers heightening her color, and the wind playing 
with her hair and the soft gray plume on her hat. The count's lackey 
handed him a basket filled with bouquets of flowers, which the count 
distributed among the ladies on his coach, reserving a bunch of jasmine 
and orchids for Dorothy. 

" The jasmine is my flower favorita," he said, " it grows all over the 
giardino of my palazzo in Venice." 

Glancing back, and seeing that Gilbert Austin's coach was quite 
ready, with Elsie on the driver's seat, the count gave the signal for 
starting, and with a fanfare on the coach horn from Judge Austin, 
who stood up to deliver it and was projected unexpectedly into Mrs. 
Ponsonby's lap by the sudden start, they .were all merrily off. Their 









^ -V-*" 



* 















"X 



wm. 






THE HOLLOW WAY AT KUSSXACHT. 



NO CHAPERON. 



33 



route took them along the shore of the lake via Klissnacht to Vitznau. 
Here they left their coaches and ascended the Rigi by the mountain 
railroad. A clear day gave them the unrivalled view in all its beauty. 
It was a happy day, such as light-hearted, quick-witted young people 
always enjoy. There was jest and story, compliment and badinage; 
and after the luncheon had been heartily appreciated, the count pro- 
duced a guitar and proved himself a rival of the musicians of the 
preceding evening. Caroline Ponsonby followed, and then Gilbert 
Austin asked if any one could play the accompaniments to any of the 
Harvard songs. Dorothy took up the guitar, and the young man 
trolled forth " The Pope he is a happy man," and " It must be 
Schneider leads dot band," and " Clem- 
entine," Elsie and Dorothy joining 
with hearty good-will in the chorus. 
American college-songs were voted 
a great success, and Mrs. Ponsonby 
declaring that she had heard a great 
deal in praise of American negro melo- 
dies, Dorothy sang to great applause 
some Creole songs which she had 
learned from Mr. Cable. Elsie fan- 
cied that Mrs. Ponsonby did not enjoy 

seeing America carry off all the honors, and complaining that the seat 
on the box was too chilly for her, she induced Gilbert Austin to invite 
Caroline Ponsonby to take her place for the homeward drive. She 
was rewarded by a seat beside Mrs. Ponsonby, who entertained her 
by giving her detailed information in regard to the count's titles, 
possessions, accomplishments, and character. (I put the words in the 
order of the importance which they occupied in the lady's mind.) 
" In short, my dear, he is quite a catch," Mrs. Ponsonby concluded, 
" but he is fully aware of his own importance, and shows no disposition 
to marry. He is probably waiting for an heiress." 




CAROLINE PONSONBY. 



34 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



The day concluded, as the former one had done, with music in 

the hotel hall, and the girls retired, assuring the count and Gilbert 

Austin that it had been one of the very pleasantest of their European 

tour. So it might have remained in their memories had not Dorothy 

/ . bethought herself that she intended 

to copy the words of one of the Italian 

songs, and descended again to the 

hall. 

It was deserted, but the music lay 
upon the piano, the gas was still burn- 
ing, and she sat down to copy the 
words. The night was warm, and 
the windows were open ; two gentle- 
men were smoking on the veranda, 
and their conversation was distinctly 
audible. 

" Listen, Gilberto," said the count ; 
" amigo mio, I am greatly interessa 
in Madamazella Dorothea. How 
differenta from the donna Inglezza ! " 

" My father has often told me that American girls have no equals." 
" The signore is right. Tell me, Gilberto. These ladies make 
their journey to Lago Maggiore. Think you I could to presume 
to make — il viggiare — the — the — travel, in company, to be as 
their courieur, them to assist with their baggage, the procuration 
of their tickets ; to make myself what you call generally useless ? " 
Gilbert Austin laughed. " It would n't do to propose such a 
thing; they are nice girls and would not accept any offer of assist- 
ance; they are perfectly able to take care of themselves." 

The count responded with a deep sigh, and Gilbert Austin con- 
tinued, " However, if you really want to continue the acquaintance, 
I don't see what is to hinder your going to Italy too, especially as 




ON THE VERANDA. 



NO CHAPE RON. 



35 



it is your own country. You can fall in with them on the way, 
and quite by accident, you know, find out which is their compartment 
on the train. If you like I will go with you; I am in no haste 
to get to Innsbruck, and I will talk to the bright one, while you 
chat with the other. They have no chaperon to extinguish us, 
and when young ladies travel without a chaperon, by that very act 
they invite a freedom of intercourse on our part which we should 
not presume upon if they were properly attended. Yes, I am sure 
we may venture, and I shall not be surprised if our company is 
even welcomed; we have certainly not been treated with rudeness 
so far." 

Boiling with indignation, Dorothy could scarcely refrain from 
appearing before the young men, and taking them to task for what 
she considered their impertinent presumption. She was restrained 
from this act only by unwillingness to lay herself open to the 
charge of eavesdropping, and she hastened to her room, there to 
hold an indignation meeting with Elsie. 

" I am sure I don't see that we have done anything so very 
disgraceful, or even imprudent. Nothing more so than those pru- 
dish Ponsonby girls at all events." 

" Only this difference," moaned Dorothy, " that they have their 
mother to chaperon them. If only Aunt Jane had been here we 
might have been twice as giddy, and those horrid men would never 
have dared to misconstrue our conduct," and Dorothy buried her 
head in her bolster, calling piteously for Aunt Jane. A look of 
firmness came into Elsie's face as she proceeded to pick the lock 
of Aunt Jane's trunk with her buttonhook, and array herself quickly 
in that good woman's venerable head-piece with its rusty crape veil. 

" Aunt Jane has arrived, children," she said, mimicking her rela- 
tive's high-pitched voice. Dorothy sat up and uttered a little shriek 
of surprise, ending in hysterical laughter. " You don't mean to 
say — " she exclaimed. 



36 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

" That I intend to enact Aunt Jane, and to chaperon you quite 
out of the reach of these presuming young men. Yes, my dear, 
I shall be such a dragon that if either of them appear on this trip 
I would like to see them offer to pay us the slightest attention. 
Mr. Austin has paid me the compliment of considering me bright; 
I will try to deserve it. See, I can do my hair up so, quite drawn 
away from my forehead, with draggly curls down over my ears, and 
I shall wear those London smoke-glasses you bought to protect 
your eyes from the snow-glare at Chamonix. Then with this crape 
veil drawn down primly, I defy recognition. Fortunately, here is 
a black shawl of Aunt Jane's, and her old-fashioned fan and mitts, 
a box of caraway seeds, her knitting, and all sorts of little stage 
properties." 

" But is it practicable ? How shall we arrange it ? " 

" We will leave by the first boat to-morrow morning instead of 
the day after to-morrow, as I told Mr. Austin we intended to do. 
I will slip out of the house first, and you will find me waiting for 
you at the boat. You can pay the bill and come down in the 
hotel omnibus, with our luggage. If either of our young friends 
offer to see you off they will see you placed under the protection 
of a respectable old lady, and will, I think, hardly dare to make 
any offer of their company. I need only keep the disguise when 
we feel that we are in the society of those who think the less of 
us for not having a chaperon." 

" But do you think you can sustain it if Mr. Austin and the 
count should happen to take the early boat?" 

"You know I always take the old-lady parts in our theatricals 
at Vassar. I can manage the voice, I know, and I rather hope 
for an opportunity of crossing swords with Mr. Gilbert Austin." 



CHAPTER III. 



HOW^THE PLAN WORKED. 




O one paid any attention to the bent, little old 
woman who slipped out of the hotel in the early 
morning, and, after taking a cup of coffee at the 
cafe next door, walked down to the steamboat- 
landing and bought two tickets for Altdorf, — no 
one but a good-natured old gentleman who was 
taking his morning constitutional along the shore of the lake, and 
who heard her ask at what time the boat would be in. Something 
in the voice appeared to attract him, for he turned quickly and 
answered the question. 

" You are nearly an hour ahead of time, ma'am, and as promp- 
titude is an American virtue I take it for granted that I am speak- 
ing to a fellow-countrywoman." 

Elsie was much embarrassed by this unexpected meeting with 
Judge Austin, and tried her best to get away from him, but he 
trotted good-naturedly at her side, delighted with having found 
some one to whom he could expatiate on America. 

"You are a very brisk walker, ma'am," he puffed; "from New 
England, I take it. New England women have an energy about 
them which is recognizable the world over. Now, few other ladies of 
your time of life would think themselves able to make a European 
tour alone." 



38 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

The remark so amused Elsie that it gave her the courage to 
reply more truthfully than was apparent. " I am not, perhaps, so 
old as I look, and I am not travelling alone ; my niece will join 
me in a few minutes." 

" No offence, ma'am," exclaimed the judge, " I meant no offence ; 
on the contrary, you are one of the youngest looking women for 
your years I ever met. Whatever your age may be, ma'am, you 
don't look it; I assure you, you don't look it." 

" There you spoke the truth without intending to do so," thought 
Elsie, and she added aloud, " My niece said the very same thing 
to me this morning. ' No one would believe, Aunt Jane,' she said, 
' that you are as old as you are, or that you could take as long 
a walk as I can — ' " 

" That 's all very true, ma'am ; the younger generation can't 
equal the old stock for all their athletics. But don't you really 
think that when people get on in years, like you and me, they are 
best off at home? This trapesing from Dan to Beersheba suits 
my son Gilbert, but I have had enough of it. I shall stay over 
here until I see him settled in Innsbruck, but I wish I could be 
at home in time for the fall elections. I don't want Denis to rule 
over me, or any other newly-naturalized foreigner to represent Illi- 
nois. I have never missed voting at an election since ' Tippecanoe 
and Tyler too.' You remember that campaign, ma'am ? Oh ! yes, 
you must remember it." And so the good man prattled on until 
the boat arrived and Elsie sought refuge on board. He escorted 
her politely to a seat on deck, carrying her cap-box and reticule 
for her. 

Just as he stepped on shore Dorothy alighted from the hotel 
omnibus. "What, off so soon!" he exclaimed, "Gilbert will be 
disappointed ; he is going on to-morrow, and hoped to have the pleas- 
ure of your company." 

" Kindly bid your son good-by for me," Dorothy replied" with 




THE BURGENSTOCK FKOM THE FOOTPATH BETWEEN VITZNAU AND GERSAU. 



HOW THE PLAA> WORKED. 



41 



much dignity. " Pray thank him for his kind intentions ; but as 
Aunt Jane, with whom I am travelling, is rather a strict chaperon, 
I fear she would hardly approve of his joining our party." 

" Then the very interesting old lady with whom I have been talk- 
ing is your aunt ? Let me take you to her. I am sure she would like 
Gilbert if she knew him. I may be able to smooth matters so that 
she will look more kindly on him when he finds you, as he certainly 
will, at Altdorf." 

And the well-intentioned old gentleman poured into Elsie's ears 
a eulogium on his son, ending by asking, — 

" At what hotel shall you stop at Altdorf? You have not decided ? 
No matter; there are only a few, and Gilbert will be sure to find you ; " 
and, with a benevolent smile he added in a lower tone, " I hope, ma'am, 
you will not be too strict with the young people. We must remember 
how we felt when we were young." The steamer was on the point of 
leaving, and he hurried on shore, where he stood waving his hat until 
they were out of sight. 

Elsie ^shook with suppressed laughter, and Dorothy was in high 
glee. ''This proves that your disguise is perfect,' she whispered; 
" but as these disagreeable young men are not on board I do not see 
why you should stifle behind that stuffy crape veil. Come down into 
the cabin and change Aunt Jane's bonnet and shawl for your own hat 
and sack. I have them here in this hand-bag. There has been so 
much confusion attendant on the embarkation that I do not think 
any one will notice Aunt Jane's disappearance, or if they do they will 
simply think that she has gone ashore." 

The change was quickly made, and Elsie, restored to her own 
personality, felt much more at home, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery 
of the Lake of the Four Cantons with its environing mountains, — the 
Rigi on the left, Pilatus on the right, and in front of them the Biirgen- 
stock, the Buoschen Horn, and the Stanser Horn. A curtain of mist 
hid from their view the grand panorama of the distant Bernese Ober- 



42 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



land, which should have been visible behind Pilatus, but as the girls 
had just come from this region they did not greatly regret the depriva- 
tion of the usual view. Dorothy had made the usual easy ascensions, 
and she was disappointed that their somewhat hasty leave-taking had 
prevented her from climbing Pilatus, and adding its name to those 
already inscribed upon her alpenstock. As she sat fingering this 
trophy it slipped from her hand and rolled to a little distance. A 
gentleman sitting beside her promptly regained it for her, and asked 







THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER. 



if he might read the names upon the staff. " I am a little of an 
Alpinist myself and am always interested in this sign of pilgrimage. 
Ah ! you have been up the Faulhorn ; that is not generally considered 
a lady's mountain. You must have felt amply repaid for your exertion, 
for the view which you gain from the summit is one of the finest in 
all Switzerland. You see I do not climb mountains simply to say 
that I have plodded up so many thousand feet. To me the view 
is the main object, and I take my little camera with me and let it have 
a peep at whatever I think worth seeing." 




GERSAU, LAKE OF LUCERNE. 



HOW THE PLAN WORKED. 45 

" Have you any of your photographs with you ? " Dorothy asked, 
interested in spite of herself. The young man took a roll of proofs 
from his pocket. " Here is the record of a recent trip in the Tyrol," 
he said, handing them to her one by one for inspection. 

" I did not know that the mountains of the Tyrol were so grand. 
One does not hear so much of them as of the Swiss Alps." 

" They deserve to be much better known. The Ortler Spitze in 
the Tyrol is nearly as high as Mont Blanc, and much grander in 
appearance. The Dolemite region presents a wonderful succession of 
savage serrated peaks, rising like the sharp teeth in the jaw of some 
huge dragon. The Dolemites are frequently visited by members of 
Alpine clubs desirous of distinction, for it is harder to climb their 
precipitous sides than most of the Swiss mountains. Even the Mat- 
terhorn, since the chains have been added, is an easier ascension than 
the hardest of the Dolemites. As some one else has said, very prac- 
ticable roads have been made in Switzerland to the most impracticable 
places. The Swiss have done everything to make their country the 
travellers' paradise, leading him by a succession of easy grades to 
stupendous heights, while the Tyrol has been left in an absolute state 
of nature, so that one may undergo terrible fatigue and even danger 
in scrambling over rocks and through underbrush, leaping crevasses 
and skirting abysses, to reach a comparatively insignificant elevation. 
I am rather glad however that it is so, and I intend to make another 
foot-tour through the Tyrol later in the season. The Ortler Spitze 
has been calling me for some time ; I have resisted its fascination so 
far, but I feel that I shall succumb before the summer is over." 

" Are the Tyrolese mountains all so difficult ? " asked Dorothy. 
" Are there none which a lady could climb ? " 

" The Stelvio Pass is the highest carriage-road in Europe, and there 
are several easy mountains near the Brenner. The Amfortspitze 
is one, and there is Mt. Campiglio not far from Botzen, with a 
comfortable hotel at its foot ; but in most of the out-of-the-way places 



46 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

you will miss the luxurious provisions for comfort which one finds in 
Switzerland. Still, if you don't mind roughing it a little, I recommend 
the Tyrol to you most heartily." He bowed, and as they were pass- 
ing the entrance into the Lake of Kussnacht, left to take a photograph 
of the charming view, and, apparently meeting with acquaintances at 
the other end of the boat, did not return to them. 

" Now there is a young man," said Elsie, " with no nonsense about 
him." 

" Don't be too sure of that," Dorothy replied gloomily ; u men 
are all more or less alike ; I hate them all." 

" Brother John too ? " Elsie asked timidly. ' 

" No ; but your brother is so nice and brotherly with all girls, and 
makes it so very evident that he does not desire to be anything but a 
brother, that one feels perfectly safe with him." 

Elsie gave a little sigh. " I suppose she would hate John too, if 
she knew the truth," she thought ; and then she asked, " At what 
hotel shall we stop at Altdorf ? " 

" I don't think we had better stop at any hotel," Dorothy replied. 
" I believe that Judge Austin is right in supposing that his son would 
be sure to find us. There are other boats which will make the trip 
later in the day; they may follow us before to-morrow, and I advise 
not stopping at Altdorf and getting on as rapidly as possible." 

" There is a train which leaves for Lago Maggiore by way of the 
St. Gotthard Pass, directly on the arrival of this boat," said Elsie, 
consulting her railway guide. " I wonder whether we shall be able 
to catch it?" 

" We must. I will run ahead and buy the tickets if you will find 
a porter to transfer the luggage." 

It was a merry and successful scamper, and the two girls found 
themselves seats in a compartment reserved for ladies just as the 
engine gave a quick snort in reply to the whistle of the guard, and the 
train moved with increasing speed toward Italy. 



HO IV THE PLAN WORKED. 



49 



There was an English lady in their compartment with a sweet 
little o-irl named Gladys, who amused them much by her prattle. Their 
carriage bore the conspicuous label Nichtraucher (not a smoker). 
The child had been attracted by it, and remarked after an interval 
of contemplation, " What a funny sleeping-car this is, Mamma." 

" It is not a sleeping-car, Gladys. What put that idea into your 
head ? " 

" Then what makes them call it a night rocker ? " And she 
could not understand the laughter which greeted her simple inquiry. 

The St. Gotthard Pass with its approaches is one of the most re- 
markable examples of engineering in the world. Fortunately the 
daylight lasted long enough for them 
to see the wonderful succession of 
twists and turns, bridges and viaducts, 
circular and semi-circular tunnels, by 
which the train dashed into the heart 
of a mountain and issued at a spot al- 
most directly above its entrance. Now 
they looked up at the church of Was- 
sen perched high above them on the 
right side of the road, and in a few 
minutes they found themselves looking 
down upon it on their left. They 

played at hide-and-seek with the impetuous torrent of the Reuss, the 
railroad appeared to tie itself into loops and knots, and the magnetic 
needle of Elsie's little compass had never before in so short a time 
whisked about in such an apparently fickle manner. Finally they 
plunged into the great St. Gotthard Tunnel, nine and a quarter miles 
in length. For twenty minutes they pursued their way through the 
centre of the mountain six thousand feet below its summit, and just 
as the sun was setting they dashed out into the semi- Italian town of 
Airolo. 




mm* 



5Q 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



The hotel, though not of the best, was crowded, and the girls were 
given a room in the dependance, a large dreary house with a stable 
on its first floor. The night was chilly, and they were so wearied 

by the exciting flight of 
the day that they were 
glad to seek early repose 
under their great down 
quilts. 

Early the next morn- 
ing Elsie was awakened 
by Dorothy's exclaiming, 
" Do get up ; it is a lovely 
day. I have been look- 
ing at what Baedeker says of the 
route which we passed over yester- 
day. It seems that we made a 
great mistake in making it by rail. 
Just listen to this : ' The St. Got- 
thard Road should be traversed on 
foot, or in an open carriage, both 
for the sake of the scenery and for 
the opportunity it affords of exam- 
ining the interesting railway.' " 
" Well," yawned Elsie, " now that we are here you don't propose 
returning in order to do it over again, do you ? " 

" Not exactly ; but I would like to walk back up the mountain as 
far as the Hospice. It takes only three hours, as it is much nearer 
Airolo than Goeschenen, the northern terminus of the tunnel, and we 
can get back in time for the two o'clock train, which will allow us 
to spend the night at Locarno as we proposed. The views must be 
magnificent, and think how well ' Hospice of St. Gotthard' will look on 
our alpenstocks." 




EN ROUTE FOR ITALY. 




ON THE AXENSTRASSE, LAKE OF LUCERNE. 



HOW THE PLAN WORKED. 53 

" That alpenstock of yours is a regular fetich," Elsie replied ; 
" but I like the plan, and we will start as soon as we have had our 
coffee. We must take our waterproofs, and I will add Aunt Jane's 
shawl to the bundle, for it is sure to be several degrees colder on the 
mountain than in the valley." 

They found the scenery rather more grand and imposing than 
beautiful. The Val Tremola, up which they walked, was a desolate 
valley, and they could well believe the information that avalanches 
were frequent in the spring, and that in the winter the snow-drifts 
were often thirty to forty feet high. They saw snow on several of the 
mountain-peaks near them. 

On arriving at the Hospice they found it converted into a mete- 
orological station. There was an inn near by at which they ordered 
luncheon, and then Dorothy stepped across the road to look into the 
old mortuary chapel. There were crumbling bones here of the travel- 
lers who had been found frozen to death long before the tunnel had 
carried the highway under instead of over the mountain. Dorothy 
was musing rather sadly on the fate of these unfortunates when she 
was startled by a familiar voice just outside the door. 

" Yes, the Hospice was founded by Carlo Borromeo. They made 
him a saint for his good deeds ; but I should not like to be a saint at 
such a price. You see he was a richissimo signore, talented, noble, 
and he renounced the world to enter the Church. Povaretto ! I 
could not do that." 

The door opened, and Gilbert Austin and Count Farniente stood 
before her. All three were greatly surprised, and Gilbert Austin 
was the first to speak. " How did you get here ? Not as we came, 
I am very certain. We reached Altdorf yesterday afternoon and 
spent the evening searching for you ; concluded that you had gone 
on to Italy; took the early train this morning as far as Goeschenen. 
and a carriage to Hospenthal, where we breakfasted, and then set 
out to cross the mountain on foot." 



54 THREE VASSAR GIRLS ' IN THE TYROL. 

Dorothy explained that she had climbed it from the southern 
side, which is not considered so fatiguing. " I fancy that our lun- 
cheon is waiting us," she added, turning to leave the chapel, " and 
as you have already had your midday meal, that it will be of no 
use to ask you to share it." 

■ " We will join you after your breakfast, if your aunt will permit 
it," Gilbert Austin replied as he accompanied her toward the inn. 
" My father says that you are no longer quite your own mistress, 
and that I must not expect a continuance of our former intimacy." 

" I was not, aware that we had become remarkably intimate, 
and I assure you that nothing was further from my intention." 

Gilbert Austin adjusted his eye-glass and stared at her with 
astonishment. Becoming convinced that she was seriously dis- 
pleased with him, he besought her to tell him the reason. " My 
father led me to believe that you would present us to your aunt," 
he added ; " is she with you ? " 

Dorothy was about to reply that Aunt Jane was not fond of 
making ascensions and had remained at her hotel, when to her 
surprise the grotesque bonnet appeared at the inn window, and 
Elsie called to her in her sharpest accents, — 

" Dorothy, Dorothy, child ; come here this instant ! " And as 
Dorothy obeyed, she added in a voice distinctly audible to the 
two gentlemen, " Don't you know any better, child, than to be 
picking up acquaintances like that ? " 

The two young men looked at each other ruefully as Dorothy 
disappeared, the count saying, — "The signorina does not seem in 
a mood to be supplicated, and her aunt is a lady to inspire senti- 
ments of awe rather than of admiration." 

" I should not care a fig for the old lady," Austin replied, " but 
Miss Dorothy herself appears to be offended. If her little friend 
is here I shall find out what is the matter, but Miss Dorothy has 
the manners of a duchess and is quite unapproachable." 




WONDERFUL SUCCESSIONS OF TWISTS AND TURNS. 



HO IV THE PLAN WORKED. 



57 



" You have well said," replied the count, " that she has the 
manners of a duchess, but is that the reason she is not to be 
approached ? It does not so seem to me." 

In the mean time Dorothy had given Elsie a hug. " You charm- 
ing girl ! How did you manage to get into that bonnet just in 
the nick of time ? " 

" I put it in the shawl-strap before we started. I had an uneasy 
feeling that it was not safe to be without it, and as I happened 
to be looking out of the window, I saw you before you saw me. 
The luncheon is served. Let us hurry and take it before they 
come in, for I do not want them to see me without my veil. I 
will sit with my back to the door so as to have time to muffle my 
face if they enter." 

" I suppose," said Dorothy, " that we shall be obliged to walk 
down the mountain together, and will it not seem a little out of 
character for a lady of •your years to be so uncommonly vigorous?" 

" I have thought of that," Elsie replied. " I saw two men with 
a chaise a porteur hanging about the inn door a few minutes ago; 
perhaps we can engage them to carry me." 

"An excellent idea! And your niece will walk dutifully at your 
side." 

Dorothy found the men, and Elsie seated herself in the chair 
just as the count and Gilbert Austin approached the door. 

" Allow me, madam," said the young consul in his politest 
accents, " to present my friend, Count Farniente." 

" But no one has presented you, young man," Elsie replied 
sharply. 

" I had hoped that your niece would perform that kind office 
for me," Austin replied, with an appealing glance toward Dorothy, 
" or that the conversation which my father had with you yesterday 
might be considered in the light of an introduction." 

Aunt Jane's only reply was to request the porters of her chair 



58 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



to move forward; and Austin turned with a discomfited air toward 
Dorothy, on whom the count was pouring forth a flood of compliment. 
"After the rebuff which your aunt has just given me, I suppose 
we must not accompany you," Austin said, as soon as he could 
gain the opportunity. " I only hope that both you and she may 




THE FALSE AUNT JANE. 

be granted repentance and better minds, and that we may be per- 
mitted to call upon you at your hotel this evening, if indeed we 
are not stopping at the same house." 

" I cannot make any promises for Aunt Jane," Dorothy replied, 
obeying a signal from Elsie to follow her. The two young men 
walked beside her for a little way. 




GORGE OF THE TICINO. AIROLO. 



HOW THE PLAN WORKED. 6 1 

" Your friend Miss Elsie did not leave Lucerne with you, my 
father informed me," said Gilbert, rather to prolong the conversation 
than from any interest in the young lady in question. 

" Elsie never cared for Italy," Dorothy replied evasively ; " her 
chief object in coming abroad was to visit her friend in the Tyrol." 
To prevent Austin from asking any further embarrassing ques- 
tions, she turned to the count and remarked, " You were speaking, 
when you entered the chapel, of Carlo Borromeo. What relation 
does his name bear to that of the Borromean Islands?" 

"It is the same family," replied the count, delighted by this 
encouragement to converse, " one of the most ancient of our Italian 
nobility. The present count is a friend to me. His favorite home 
is on the Isola Bella. Ah ! it is rightly name. The signorina has 
said that she is on her way to Baveno. The Isola Bella is justly 
opposite with the other islands Borromeo. If the countess is at 
Isola Bella, I will not delay to bring her to call upon the signorina. 
Then you will have invitation to visit her lovely home and to 
— ^andare in barca upon the lake." 

" You are very kind," Dorothy replied gently. " I will speak 
to Aunt Jane of your delightful offer ; and remember that what- 
ever may be her reply I thank you. 1 ' With a slight inclination 
of her head to Austin, and a pretty, imperious wave of the hand 
which forbade them to follow, she ran on and rejoined her pretended 
aunt. 

The girls talked little on their way down the mountain, for one 
of the bearers understood English. They reached their room in 
ample time to gather their belongings together and to walk to the 
station before the departure of the train, Elsie resuming her girlish 
attire before leaving the room. She noticed that Dorothy wrote 
a note and then tore it into small pieces; but she did not seem to be 
in a talkative mood, and it was not until they were comfortably 
settled in the cars that Elsie remarked to her, — 



62 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



" I think that I snubbed Mr. Gilbert Austin pretty successfully, 
don't you, dear ? " 

" Almost too successfully," Dorothy replied. 

" What do you mean ? " Elsie 
asked in astonishment. 

" I mean that you rather over- 
acted your part. I did not in- 
tend gratuitously to insult' and 
offend these gentlemen. There 
was nothing in our former pleas- 
ant intercourse to regret except 
the lack of a chaperon, and I 
supposed that when you assumed 
that character, that after having 
impressed Mr. Austin with his 
mistake, we would resume the old 
relations. The count has offered 
to introduce us to his titled 
friends, and — " 

" And you would really like 
to continue his acquaintance ? " 

" It is very agreeable ; I don't 

see why not." 

Elsie looked hard out of the window, and was silent; but her 

beating heart kept repeating over and over again in rhythm to the 

steady jarring of the train, and so loudly that it seemed to her excited 

imagination that her friend must understand the words, — 




POOR JOHN. 



"You cruel girl, you cruel girl 
Poor John, poor John ! 
You cruel, cruel, cruel girl ! 
Poor, poor John ! " 



CHAPTER IV. 



LAGO MAGGIORE. 



A path of pleasure. Like a silver zone 
Flung about carelessly it shines afar, 
Catching the eye in many a broken link, 
In many a turn and traverse as it glides ; 
And oft above and oft below appears. 
Yet through its fairy course, go where it will, 
The torrent stops it not ; the rugged rock 
Opens and lets it in ; and on it runs, 
Winning its easy way from clime to clime. 

But now 't is passed, 
That turbulent chaos ; and the promised land 
Lies at my feet in all its loveliness ! 
To him who starts up from a terrible dream. 
And lo ! the sun is shining and the lark 
Singing aloud for joy, to him is not 
Such sudden ravishment as now I feel 
At the first glimpses of fair Italy. 

Rogers. 



ifc^.^Jffl HE character of the scenery changed as by magic 
as they descended toward Italy. Not only was 
the vegetation more abundant on the southern 
slopes of the Alps, the walnut and the beech ap- 
pearing in the valleys in the place of the gloomy 
pines, but the character of the architecture and of 
the people changed as well. Not for the better however. White stone 
huts replaced the log chalets, gleaming picturesquely in the distance, 

5 




66 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



but dirty and squalid when seen near at hand. The people spoke 
the soft Italian language, smoked the long cigars of Turin instead 
of the German pipe, and wore the costume of Piedmont; but they 
lacked the sturdy honesty of the German Swiss, and there was a 
dash of the bandit in their wild appearance. 

The girls' first stop was at Locarno on Lago Maggiore. " It is 
like a scene in the theatre," Dorothy exclaimed with delight. " The 

arches and over-hanging balconies are all 
ready for Romeo and Juliet to rehearse 
their parts ; the fruit and bright cos- 
tumes seem arranged to give touches of 
color ; even the dirt and rags of the beg- 
gars appear to be put on with an eye to 
picturesque effect. It is altogether ad- 
mirable." 

" Then you would rather the beggars 

should be dirty and picturesque than clean 

and prosaic ? " Elsie asked. 

" Yes, indeed. One quite forgets that these superb creatures are 

suffering; and I fancy that a great deal of our sympathy is wasted 

upon them, and that they really enjoy their misery." 

Their pause at Locarno was only to give them a night's rest, 
and on the next day they sailed down the enchanting lake to Baveno, 
a charming little town nestled under grand mountains. 

An adventure extremely mortifying to the girls befell them on 
the way. As they stepped on board the little steamer Dorothy 
noticed a well-known figure standing at the stern. 

" There is that altogether disagreeable Gilbert Austin. The count 
is with him too," she whispered to Elsie. " They have not seen us yet. 
Come into the cabin quickly, and change your hat and jacket for 
Aunt Jane's bonnet and shawl." 

Elsie demurred. All pleasure in the masquerade had vanished for 




A TURIN C1GAK. 




MORTUARY CHAPEL IN THE ST. GOTTHARD. 



LAGO MAGGIORE. 



6 9 



her. " I think we have had enough fun," she replied ; " I would rather 
not do it any more." 

But Dorothy swept her along, and presently mounted to the deck 
in company with a little old woman in black. A Swiss officer looked 
at the girls closely, and as it seemed to them rudely, as they passed, 
and they hurried by him and took an inconspicuous seat behind other 
passengers. But the man was not to be escaped. He followed them 
and stood staring at them fixedly. 

" How very impudent he is," Dorothy whispered. " I really think 
I had better appeal to Mr. Austin." 

As she rose to do so the young man noticed her and came for- 
ward, greeting them pleasantly. " You must have left on a very early 
train," he said. " It is a happy chance that we have overtaken you." 

Dorothy was about to reply ; but the Swiss officer approached and 
said authoritatively, " I must trouble the lady in black to go on shore. 
I cannot allow her to cross the Italian frontier, for I have reason 
to believe that she is disguised, and that I have seen her in quite 
another costume; I am stationed here to look out for a noted adven- 
turess. I insist that this lady remove her veil." Elsie uttered a stifled 
cry, and Dorothy turned deadly pale. 

" These ladies are friends and compatriots of mine," said Gilbert 
Austin. " I can satisfy you as to my official position by my credentials, 
and I make myself responsible for them." 

The officer examined the papers which Austin handed him with 
evident respect. 

u Here too is the Count Farniente," Gilbert Austin continued, " if 
you wish other assurance than mine of their perfect respectability." 
The count was profuse in his assertions, and the official hesitated. 

" Will the ladies show me their passports ? " he asked at last. 

Dorothy produced the papers instantly. 

" But this description tells of two young ladies." 

" And they are both young," Gilbert Austin replied coolly. " Miss 



7o 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



Elsie, will you oblige the gentleman by removing your veil ? Because 
Americans dress in a manner peculiar to themselves, Signor Officer, it 
is not necessary to conclude too rashly that they are disguised." 

The officer was himself too much surprised to notice the count's 

exclamation of astonishment. 
" Is it thus that young ladies 
dress in America ? " he asked. 
" Sometimes," Dorothy re- 
plied demurely, resuming con- 
fidence. " At all events, sir, we 
are the American girls speci- 
fied in those passports." 

The count had recovered 
from his surprise, and now 
spoke to good purpose, and 
the officer retired, making pro- 
fuse apologies. But the atten- 
tion of the other passengers 
had been attracted by this little scene, and Elsie retired into the depths 
of Aunt Jane's bonnet, her eyes filled with tears of mortification. 
Dorothy assumed a haughty air and tried not to appear conscious 
of the fact that all eyes were upon her, but her cheeks flamed un- 
comfortably. The two gentlemen seated themselves beside the girls 
and pointed out the castles and places of interest which the boat 
passed, but all pleasure had vanished from the trip. 

" I thank you for saving us from great annoyance," Elsie mur- 
mured. " How did you know me ? " 

" I knew you from the first," Gilbert Austin replied. " The count 
did not recognize you, and I did not think it necessary to enlighten 
him." 

" I am not as good an actor as I thought." 

" Oh ! as for that I flatter myself that no one could deceive me in 




COUNT FAKNIENTE. 



LA GO MAGGIORE. 



73 



that way ; but I have been puzzling all along as to your motive, and 
confess that I have not been able to make it out." 

" We felt the need of a chaperon, — that was all." 

" What nonsense ! as though two such dignified, self-reliant young 
women as you are, needed any such superfluous article as that." 

Dorothy turned, " I cannot imagine 
what may have changed Mr. Austin's 
opinion," she said ; " but I trust that the 
change is a genuine one." 

" What can she mean ? " thought the 
young man, but he dared not ask the 
question aloud. In spite of their hav- 
ing placed themselves in an uncomfort- 
able and ludicrous position he felt a sin- 
cere respect for their uprightness of in- 
tention. The girls did not know this, 
however, and were deeply humiliated. 
There was no feeling of gratitude in 
their minds toward Gilbert Austin for 
helping them out of their predicament. 
On the contrary Dorothy almost hated 
him for his evident feeling of superior- 
ity and amusement. " If he thinks that 
he is to be allowed to take upon him- 
self any airs of protection and intimacy from this adventure," she 
thought, " he will find himself sadly mistaken." 

" I never, never will sail under false colors again," said Elsie, the 
tears welling up into her eyes. 

" There will be no need for it, dear," said Dorothy, " since in an 
hour from now we shall be under Mrs. Irving's protection." 

" That shall be Mrs. Wellington Irving of the Villa Claudia ? " 
asked the count. " Ah ! I have then the pleasure to know her. She 




MRS. IRVING. 



74 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

is a friend to my mother ; they have been very what you call imitate. 
No ? that is not the word. Your American language is my desola- 
tion, and yet it is not recent that I have made my studies of it. It is 
of years, and at the University of Padua I have received the first prize 
for my English." 

Mrs. Irving was at the wharf to meet the girls with her pony 
carriage. She greeted the count familiarly and invited him to call, but 
looked a little grave when the entire story was related that evening. 

" I do not know anything positively wrong about him," she ex- 
plained ; " but then there is nothing positive about Pasquale in any 
way. He is only a tailor's model admirably constructed to exhibit 
fine clothes, with a disposition very sweet and "gentle so long as you 
do not cross it or ask him to exert himself in any way. His mother 
is very mercenary, and has such a temper ! I don't wonder that her 
son is afraid of her. My own acquaintance with her is due to the fact 
that I rented the Appartemento Signorile in her palazzo." 

" I should think a countess would be above such a thing," said 
Dorothy. 

" She was, my dear, very much above me, — three whole stories, for 
she crowded herself into the garret and let all the other rooms. Her 
son lives on the rental of the palazzo and on some other trifling 
sources of revenue which bring him an income sufficient to keep him 
in kid gloves and cigarettes, and to allow him that ' lily-like disoccupa- 
tion ' which Howells speaks of as the characteristic of an Italian 
gentleman." 

The days were warm and languorous, but they were very lovely. 
There was a terrace in front of the villa, screened from public view by 
shrubbery but open to the lake, where they loved to sit and watch the 
changing light upon the water and on Pallanza, which lay just opposite 
with its background of wonderful mountains. " The mountains are far 
enough away," Dorothy said, " not to weary one with suggestions of 
climbing, the mist gives them a glamour of unreality which is deli- 




■^^HHK.-. . r.^ 



LA GO MAGGIORE. 77 

cious, and this shimmering sunset-light on the lake is simply entran- 
cing. I would love to sit here and do nothing for the rest of my life." 

Elsie shook her head. " It might grow wearisome after a time, 
Dorothy," she suggested. 

In spite of Dorothy's declaration that such a thing should not be, 
the count and Gilbert Austin did take to themselves assurance from 
the fact that they had lately played the role of protectors to the girls, 
and from the count's acquaintance with their hostess. They came 
over from the hotel every day, and lounged and chatted upon the 
terrace or rowed them out upon the lake. In their intercourse it 
always happened that the count walked or talked with Dorothy, while 
Gilbert Austin fell to Elsie. A few days after their arrival at Baveno 
he announced to her that he must leave on the morrow for Innsbruck. 

" Why do you go so soon ? " Elsie asked politely. 

" It is not soon," he answered ; " my duties have been waiting for 
me too long already. Besides, I am not needed here. Miss Dorothy 
makes me understand very plainly that she does not approve of me." 

Elsie was too truthful to deny this, and she replied, " If you really 
must go, give my best love to my friend Valerie and tell her that I 
shall soon be with her." 

" If you desire me to carry any special message, of course I will do 
so; but otherwise I do not think I shall call on Miss von Hohenberg." 

Elsie's lifted eyebrows seemed to ask why, and Gilbert Austin 
explained. " I am not a title-hunter. I made the acquaintance of 
Count Farniente quite by accident, and through no scheming of my 
own ; indeed he rather pressed his friendship upon me. Your 
friend may be very charming, but her position antagonizes me. I 
never could see why our American girls care for titles, and for a man 
to consider them shows that his ideals are utterly microscopic." 

Elsie hesitated. " Your friend the count is a very agreeable 
man," she said at last, boldly. " He seems interested in Dorothy. 
Would you be willing to have your sister marry him?" 



j 8 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

Gilbert Austin started. " My feeling in the matter would make no 
difference. The count would never marry a sister of mine ; we are not 
rich enough. Unless your friend is very wealthy I do not think that 
she is in any danger. The count may admire her, but he will bridle 
his affections." 

Elsie was indignant. " You provoke me very much, Mr. Austin," 
she said ; " I would like to prophesy that before I see you again both 
of the events which you regard as so impossible may take place." 

" What events ? " 

" The count will propose to Dorothy and you to Valerie." 

" Those events are equally impossible ; " and the young man took 
his departure with an air of such supreme satisfaction in his own 
superior wisdom that Elsie was more enraged than ever. " And yet," 
she said to herself, " I don't want the count to propose, for if he does 
I am afraid that she will accept him." 

After Mr. Austin's departure the count still continued his visits, 
and there was no cessation to the excursions by land and water. The 
group of Borromean Islands opposite the Villa Claudia interested the 
girls both by their beauty and their history. 

One was called the Isola dei Pescatori, or Island of the Fisher- 
men. On it was crowded a fishing-village. A little stretch of green- 
sward at one end was reserved for the drying of the nets. The houses 
were painted pink, buff, and white, and presented an irregular jumble 
of roofs and queer little jutting balconies. In front of the island bare- 
legged men were continually pushing off or hauling in clumsy boats, 
which with their rakish lateen-sails added to the effect of the picture. 
Quite a contrast to this island was its neighbor the Isola Bella, 
whose gardens and palazzo are for four months of the year the home 
of the Count and Countess Borromeo. This island rises like a crea- 
tion of fairyland from the lake, in a succession of artificial terraces in 
an ornate though unnatural style of gardening. Statues, vases, and 
carved balustrades are intermingled with the semi-tropical plants, — the 




\\\ 



filter - 

1 mi ^ ^ 



p| 



I«P1. 



i| «P : 



LA GO MAGGIORE. gj 

aloe, the orange, the citron, roses, jasmine, and cacti, set off with the 
dark velvety background of yews cut into fantastic forms. The entire 
island is covered with soil brought from a distance. It was a rocky 
waste until 167 1, when Vitaliano, Count Borromeo, master general of 
ordnance to the King of Spain, took the fancy to make a paradise 
here. The exotic plants flourish luxuriantly, for the flinty rock be- 
neath the shallow soil retains the sun's heat, and in winter the arti- 
ficial garden is carefully boxed from the snow. The taste of the 
entire plan has been much questioned. There is something theatrical 
and out of place about the island, but in spite of this it exerts its 
charm on the young and the uncritical. Dorothy, though she com- 
pared it to an elaborately decorated wedding-cake, admired it as she 
did rococo architecture, — which has been aptly called the cauliflower 
and periwig style, — and was anxious to visit the paradise. 

Strangers are allowed to see the gardens and palace during the 
absence of the owner, but the count and countess were in residence, 
and as Mrs. Irving was not acquainted with them Dorothy's wish did 
not seem likely to be realized. 

One day a rumor went forth that there was to be a grand fete at 
Isola Bella. Some young ladies visiting at the neighboring Villa 
Clara brought the news, only too glad to display their own invitations. 

" Of course you will go," they said. " The invitations are very select; 
only the most distinguished families in the neighborhood are invited. 
There will be no hotel people, and very few English or Americans. 
The Palavicinis will be there, and the Milanese nobility, descendants 
of the Sforzas and Visconti, and perhaps of the Medici. There will 
be a special train from Como, and a tenor from the Scala Theatre is to 
sing. Altogether it will be a very brilliant occasion." 

" How very charming ! " exclaimed Dorothy, consumed with a 
desire to see all these splendors. " I hardly imagine, however, that we 
shall be favored with invitations. I do not think Mrs. Irving knows 
the family." 



£ 2 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

" Not know the Borromeos ! " exclaimed their callers, in astonishment. 
" Oh ! you must be mistaken ; it would be too heart-rending if you 
could not go. I will ask Aunt Alice to ask if we may not take you." 

"Pray do not put her to that annoyance; perhaps invitations may 
still come for us," Dorothy replied with dignity, though in her heart 
she quite despaired of any such good fortune. But her guests had 
hardly taken leave when Count Farniente called, as nearly excited as 
it was possible for a man of his languorous temperament to be. 




W*- 



ISOLA BELLA. 



" I have effected it," he exclaimed in gentle triumph. " The 
Countess Borromeo have send you all invitation to her fete." 

Mrs. Irving's maid had fairy fingers, and from Mrs. Irving's ward- 
robe becoming dresses were speedily evolved for the two girls, — a 
pretty, soft, Japanese silk for Elsie ; and a rich old velvet for Dorothy, 
with puffed sleeves and costly Venetian lace at the throat, the simple 
folds of the skirt looped and held in place by a silver chatelaine. 

" You look like a princess," Mrs. Irving exclaimed as she descended 
the staircase, and the lady was quite right. Mrs. Irving herself in 
black lace and diamonds was an elegant woman, and Mr. Irving was 
a man of distinguished appearance in any costume. 



LA GO MAGGIORE. 83 

They were rowed across in the afternoon, for the fete was to begin 
with a garden party. Count Farniente presented them to their host 
and hostess, who received them upon the grand staircase of the terrace. 
As other guests were constantly arriving they chatted but for a mo- 
ment and then passed on to make the rounds of the garden. Grottos 
and labyrinthine walks led from one level to another, and the count 
pointed out the rarest plants and flowers, — an enormous cedar of 
Lebanon and another cedar from the Himalayas, an American pine, 
a laurel three hundred years old, sugar-cane from the West Indies, 
palms from Africa, Japanese grasses, a cork tree from Portugal, 
bamboo from China, with luxuriant ivy and other vines. " It is a true 
Italian garden," he said admiringly. " It is a little like the Boboli 
gardens in Florence and a little like the Villa d'Este at Rome, but 
it is quite itself. 

They strolled through the orangery, came out again upon the terrace, 
and leaning upon the mossy balustrade, looked away across the lake. 

"There is a sweet-briar rose," said Elsie; "it makes me think 
of Mary Howitt's poem, — 

" ' The rose of May its pride displayed 
Along the old stone balustrade : 
And ancient ladies quaintly dight 

iln its pink blossoms took delight, 
And on the steps would make a stand 
To scent its sweetness, fan in hand.' " 

The count looked up quickly at Dorothy with such a peculiar 
i expression that she colored, and asked, "Am I such an ancient lady?" 

" You look as if you belonged in it," he replied, " and as if it 
had belonged to you for hundreds of years." 

" That is hardly a compliment," she laughed ; " but the garden 
I is very beautiful. I think I should not tire of it in several cen- 
t turies. Why does the countess spend so short a time here ? " 

The count shrugged his shoulders. " The contessa is young," 
he said ; " why should she live always with only the sound of the 



84 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

water lapping the palace walls sounding in her ears ? The gardens 
make well their affair for a few months. They are gay now with 
company everywhere — the orchestra in the grotto, the servants 
who serve the ices; but imagine to yourself the desolateness of 
being alone here. It is as that poor Robinson Crusoe of whom I 
read in your so delightful English classic. Ah ! Dante should 
have put it in his " Inferno," — an island where one should be alone. 
But no, it was too horrible; he could not imagine it, and his con- 
demned have always at least the pleasure of society." 

" But the contessa is not alone," Dorothy replied thoughtlessly. 

" You would say that when two shall love it is to them Para- 
dise to be alone. That is a beautiful poetry, but it is not a prose. 
Imagine to yourself, for instant ; could any woman so love me as 
to desire no other society ? " 

Dorothy looked disconcerted. 

" No, I see by the expression to your face, it is impossible. So 
the contessa promenades herself everywhere, — Paris, Vienna, St. 
Petersburg, — and why not ? It is not money that is lacking in 
this family." 

• " With all these poor people at one's door," suggested Elsie, 
"one might find human interests enough even here." 

"Ah ! that is exactly, what for I make my reproaches to the 
count," said their escort. " Why does he such a rabble of fisher- 
men allow that they encroach to the borders of his pleasure grounds ? 
If the island were to you, signorina, without doubt she would sweep 
it of its beggars, and make also of it a garden ; but we Italians 
lack what you call the initiative." 

" Where would these people go if they were dispossessed of their 
homes," Dorothy asked. 

" I do not know," the count replied ; " to America perhaps. 
Shall the signorina derange herself to visit the palazzo, to behold 
the paintings before it shall be quite dark ? " 



LA GO MAGGIORE. 



S5 



It was the first palace which the girls had visited, and smoth- 
ered exclamations of surprise and admiration escaped them in spite 
of their desire not to appear deeply impressed by any of this 
magnificence. The grand staircase, with its many coats-of-arms 
and heraldic ornamentation, all telling of noble families connected 
in some way with the Borromeos, and its long suite of state 




FISHERMEN ON THE LAKE. 



apartments and guest chambers, once occupied by 
ages, gave an impression of ceremonious grandeur 
o-irls were entirely unaccustomed. This magnificent 
crimson brocade and gold was Queen Caroline's 
this simpler room was occupied by Napoleon after 
Marengo. Here was a throne-room with canopied 
raised dais where Cardinal Borromeo received his 
visiting at his ancestral home, and leading from it 



noted person- 
to which the 
apartment all 

bed-chamber ; 

the battle of 
chair upon a 

friends when 
was a picture- 



86 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

gallery filled with copies and originals by the greatest Italian 
masters. There were long suites of tapestried chambers, and halls 
devoted to statuary, and little boudoirs in the coquettish style of 
Marie Antoinette, as well as grand salons in the pompous mode 
of the Grand Monarque, in which, as the evening advanced, the 
company were assembled for music and dancing. Dorothy had no 
lack of partners; the statuesque American girl in the mediaeval 
dress attracted much attention. In one of the pauses in the danc- 
ing she caught sight of the young ladies who had first told her 
of this fete sitting in the background as wall-flowers, and looking, 
as she afterwards told Elsie, "perfectly green with envy." 

It was the triumph of the senses ; and the glamour of mere earthly 

loveliness had achieved its very highest empire over Dorothy's mind. 

" Why should one be an enthusiast ? " she asked herself. " Why 

not enjoy life as it comes to us without this eternal self-torture about 

our duty to others ? " 

The lake was lighted up with colored lanterns swaying in the 
numerous boats, as they were rowed homeward. The count sat 
beside Dorothy, a little apart from the others, and drew her opera 
cloak carefully about her with lover-like attention. As she leaned 
back on the cushioned seats of the row-boat she listened to the 
rhythmic pulse of the oars, which seemed to keep time to the soft 
tinkle of mandolins from other boats, and to the swell of the stringed 
instruments at the palazzo where the dancers were still dancing. 
The evening breeze wafted the perfume of jasmine from the Isola 
Bella, and the lights of Pallanza glittered across the lake. It was a 
glorious night, the sky a deep entrancing blue, and the moon purest 
silver, dancing in reflection in the waves. A tenor voice in a neigh- 
boring boat sang one of Vittorello's serenades : — 

" Guarda che bianca luna 
Guarda che notte azzura 
Un auro non susurra 
Non tremolo uno stel." 



LAGO MAGGIORE. 89 

If just then the count had whispered, " I will give you a palace 
and an earthly paradise like this if you will be my countess," Dorothy 
would have closed the bargain, even though she knew that she did not 
care a penny for the count ; that there was more of manliness in one 
of John Hartley's little fingers than in all the Count's world-wearied 
and soiled soul ; and that in her heart of hearts she loved honest John 
and always would love him, whatever might befall. 

" What of that ? " she would have said to herself. " John does not 
love me, and it does not come in the range of every girl's possibilities 
to be a countess. I want to achieve something extraordinary; this is 
certainly my opportunity." And she would have bartered heart and 
soul for this glittering bauble. But her time of trial had not come. 
Sometimes our Heavenly Father, seeing how miserably unfit we are 
to sustain temptation, shapes circumstances over which we have no 
control, — accidents they seem to us, — which stop us in careers of our 
own choosing, and leave us safe because untested. Sometimes too He 
keeps us from a real good until we are able to bear it, leading us forty 
years in the wilderness until we have been disciplined, and are fit to 
enter the promised land. And sometimes, alas, all these guiding and 
hindering providences are thrust aside by headstrong wills that seem 
insanely bent on achieving their own misery. The count was as 
deeply stirred that evening as it was possible for him to be. Almost 
he was tempted to yield to the charm of the lovely face beside him, 
and to the bewitching influences of the night, to make Dorothy a full 
and unconditional offer of heart and hand, title and possessions. He 
would have been very happy in her acceptance too, until his next con- 
versation with his mother and the family lawyer, for it had been fully 
agreed between them that the estate needed fresh money and a great 
deal of it, and that the count must marry an heiress. These consider- 
ations obtruded themselves unpleasantly on his mind even at this de- 
licious moment, and the count did not offer himself; but he came 
very near it a moment later when Dorothy remarked, " This must be 



9° THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

like Venice," and he replied with a world of meaning in his expressive 
eyes, " Yes, but Venice is far more. You, who belong in it as if you 
were Italian born, should see Venice. When once there I think the 
city would win your heart and you would make yourself Venetian. 
Ah, if I could see you stand as you stood on the terrace on the stair- 
case of my muzzer's palazzo ! Promise me that you will so stand one 
day; promise me that, and you will make me happy for efrer." 

After all it was a very little thing which he had asked, but his 
voice, his hand upon his heart and his expressive eyes had thrown 
such unbounded suggestiveness into the request, that it seemed for 
the moment as if he had made a most impassioned declaration. 
Dorothy understood it as he meant she should, and replied in so 
low a tone that he rather guessed than heard her answer, " If you 
wish it so much I will stand there." 




CHAPTER V. 

VALERIE. 

ALERIE'S home was a fantastic little chateau situated 
on a spur of one of the mountains whose grand proces- 
sion encircles Innsbruck. The greater part of the 
chateau was modern for the old world, having been 
built in the earlier half of the present century by 
Valerie's grandfather; but there were two old towers, the remnants of 
a more ancient castle, in which Valerie's ancestors from remote ages 
had dwelt until its destruction by fire in the seventeenth century. 

The chateau was a picturesque feature in the landscape with its 
ancient towers crowned with extinguisher roofs plated with green 
tiles. Away back in the fifteenth century the Emperor Maximilian 
had been the guest of the castle, and Valerie's grandfather, three cen- 
turies after the event, had celebrated it by having a frieze painted in 
fresco across the front of the chateau on the wall connecting the two 
old towers and over the principal entrance. The fresco represented 
the welcome given to the Kaiser after his return from his thrilling ad- 
venture on Martinswand. It had been executed by a Munich artist 
of considerable skill, and although it reminded Elsie when she saw it 
later of a circus poster advertising one of Barnum's street processions, 
she soon discovered that it was not an unusual thing in the Tyrol and 
Bavaria for wealthy people to decorate the facades of their houses in 
this grotesque manner. The emperor was represented as riding on a 



9 2 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 




fe 



handsomely caparisoned charger, and followed by two sturdy Tyrolese 
jagers, who carried between them a great boar supposed to have been 
killed in the royal 

hunt of the earlier F~~ ' """" "j 

part of the day. 
The worthy graf 
and grafin had de- 
scended the steps 
of the chateau to 
meet their sover- 
eign ; while oddiy 
enough the cook 
of the castle was 
visible behind 
them, bearing, 
roasted and served 
upon a platter, the 
head of the boar, 

which in the other part of the fresco was 
still attached to his body. 

The precipice of Martinswand was 
visible from the chateau, and a little shelf 
of rock is pointed out half way up its dizzy 
height, where the emperor, who had been 
absorbed in following a chamois, suddenly 
found himself unable either to advance 
or retreat. The people beneath, unable 
to rescue him, brought a priest, who gave 
him absolution from a distance ; and he sat 
down to await his death. The legend, 
with its tradition of miraculous rescue, 
is told in the following ballad : — 



SCENERY IN THE TYROL. 




VALERIE. 93 



ST. MARTIN'S WALL. 

Who is the daring archer that in hunter's costume stands. 
In his hat the beard of the chamois, and the cross-bow in his hands: 
Whose eye with a youthful ardor like the eye of a monarch glances, 
Whose heart with a quiet rapture in the sport of the hunter dances? 

The hunter is Max of Hapsburg on a lusty chamois chase. 

Where scarcely the chamois ventures, he sweeps on the frightful race ; 

Here over heaps of rubble, over deep abysses there, 

Now on the ground close creeping, now flying through the air. 

And now, hold on ! No farther ! Now is he fast confined. 

Chasm before and chasms beside him, and a break-neck wall behind. 

His throne the rocky rampart, see the princely scion stand, 
His sceptre, the wall-lichen, he grasps with wavering hand. 
Around him spreads a vista so boundlessly displayed, 
That before the dizzy prospect his senses faint and fade. 

With a blast of mighty clangor through his horn for help he calls, 
On the air like a peal of thunder, but on air alone it falls, — 
A little devil titters from a cleft in the nearest rock. — 
It falls far short of the valley, his stout horn's fullest shock. 

What the ear had not discovered the vision has descried ; 

From below they saw him swaying on the pathless mountain side. 

There 's a sound to heaven ascending of orisons and bells 

While from church to church in pilgrimage the tide of manhood swells. 

At the mountain's foot a multitude in various garb appears ; 
A priest in their midst to heaven the sacrament uprears. 
When the crowds in mingled colors in the distant valley shone, 
Max saw the glance and glitter of the golden pyx alone. 

In earnest supplication he sinks upon his knee, 

Raises his eyes, invoking Heaven's succor ferventlv. 

A hand is laid on his shoulder, he starts with a thrill of fear: 

" Come home, thou art in safety," rings cheerily in his ear. 

He mounts Max on his shoulders where the dizzy chasms frown. 
On a fairer throne and firmer Max never sat him down. 
To the valley thus descending his course all Tyrol cheers. 
Though he rides in a strange fashion at Max no scoffer jeers. 



94 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

There is an old tradition, of many ages since, 

That a messenger from heaven wrought the rescue of the prince. 

Yes, indeed it was an angel, a spirit from above. — 

The love of faithful Tyrol, a loyal people's love. 

From the precipice down-looking on the vale a crucifix 

Marks the spot where Austria's scion saw the shining of the pyx. 

Still lives the ancient legend, and in song will never cease 

To stir a quicker heart-beat in every Tyrolese. 

The Tyrolese have indeed been always loyal to the house of 
Hapsburg ; and Maximilian, one of the most renowned of its emperors, 
was fond of Innsbruck. His tomb in the church of the Franciscans 
is one of the most beautiful that the world can boast. The sar- 
cophagus itself is a wonder of workmanship, and it is surrounded by 
twenty-eight colossal bronze statues of kings and queens, who stand, 
as the emperor's paladins might have stood about his dais in the 
rittersaal at Valerie's home. Valerie felt a sense of almost personal 
acquaintance with each of these silent personages, and she was 
impatient to introduce Elsie to them, and especially to her favorite 
Arthur of England, for in this statue the sculptor had fully realized 
the ideal of Tennyson — 

" Thou art the highest and most human too." 

Whenever Valerie indulged in those day-dreams in regard to her 
own future which come to all young girls, she saw her knight — 

" King Arthur, like a modern gentleman 
Of stateliest port."' 

There were no chamois or wolves near the chateau now, though 
this was long a famous hunting-region, for Innsbruck is nestled in a 
valley from which the savage mountains rise so immediately and 
sharply that the transition from civilized to wild life is abrupt enough 
to give rise to the saying that the wolves in the mountains look down 
the chimneys of Innsbruck. 

Since her return Valerie had been a little homesick for Vassar and 
her dear friend Elsie. After the formal calls of greeting had been 



VALERIE. 97 

exchanged with the old friends and neighbors, Valerie found it diffi- 
cult to satisfy herself with the monotonous life of the chateau. She 
was too sensible and unselfish a girl to allow this discontent to become 
apparent, and she took herself sharply to task for it. " Of what good 
is my education," she asked herself, " if it makes me dissatisfied with 
my condition in life? It ought on the contrary to afford resources. 
Surely I can find some means of continuing my studies and of occupy- 
ing my time in a profitable manner." 

Valerie's mother interested herself in the thrifty German fashion in 
the management of her household affairs, and did not require Valerie's 
assistance. She had no sisters, and her only brother Franz was away 
with the Austrian army. No wonder that life at the chateau was a 
little dull. The count guessed the truth, and said to her one morning, 
" What shall I do to distract my little girl ? Would you like in the 
summer to visit your aunt at Chiemsee, where life is a trifle gayer ? " 

" No, indeed, Vaterchen," Valerie replied eagerly. " Chiemsee is 
too much of a fashionable watering-place. Besides, you know I hope 
for a visit from my dear friend Elsie, though she has not written me 
the exact date of her coming, and I do not want to be away from 
home when she arrives. I want to show her all the sights of Inns- 
bruck. I know she will like the Helblingshaus and the house of the 
Goldenes Dachl, and will be interested in knowing that Frederic of 
the Empty Purse plated the copper roof of its bay-windows with pure 
gold to prove his nickname a misnomer. We will take long walks 
together in the mountains to Berg Isel, to the Lanser Kopfe, and 
even as far as Martinswand. I hope that Franz will be able to get a 
furlough ; and I mean to write him to try to be at home while she is 
here. There then will be amusement enough." 

Near Valerie's home was a larger and more famous chateau, 
the castle of Ambras. This had been the home from 1567 to 
1580 of the beautiful Philipine Welser, the wife of the Arch-Duke 
Ferdinand, Regent of the Tyrol. The history of the courtship, 

7 



98 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

long betrothal, and secret marriage of the pair is very romantic. 
Philipine was the daughter of a simple merchant, and Ferdinand 
the son of the emperor, who for a long time refused his consent 
to this plebeian marriage ; but he was won at last by the loveliness 
of his daughter-in-law, and the marriage was publicly acknowledged. 
Her portrait agrees well with the character which history gives 
her, and is one of rare beauty and sweetness. Valerie's face bore 
a decided resemblance to this portrait. It had been often remarked ; 
and she had taken part in a number of tableaux, fancy-dress balls, 
and pageants dressed to represent Philipine, with a jewelled net 
drawn over her dark hair, a high velvet collar meeting her chin in 
a delicate ruff, and clasped about with a heavy necklace. 

Valerie wondered how the noble lady occupied her time when chate- 
laine of dreary Schloss Ambras, and searched the records for some 
hint for herself. She was not surprised to ascertain that Philipine 
found her pleasure in philanthropy. " At one time," she read, " Am- 
bras must have been more like a hospital for paupers than a princely 
residence." There were Turkish prisoners, Russian and Turkish girls, 
poor or disabled peasants, and idiots and epileptics. Philipine main- 
tained a physician to minister to her guests, and herself studied phar- 
macy and prepared drugs and simples. In her book of recipes Va- 
lerie found receipts for the preparation of "rose syrup, rose honey, 
the juice of quinces, wild cherries, and figs; many sorts of lotions, 
gargles, and tooth-washes, remedies for cramp in the stomach, epi- 
leptic fits, swollen tonsils, coughs, vertigo, and consumption ; and, 
finally, antidotes against poisons." Valerie was not fond of practi- 
cal chemistry, and did not care to follow the example of the Lady 
Philipine by the study and practice of medicine ; but she found 
some of her prescriptions amusing enough, as was the following 
remedy for cramp in the stomach : " Slaughter a sheep close by 
the patient, flay it speedily, and lay the warm skin upon the bare 
body." 




A RUINED CASTLE IN THE TYROL. 



VALERIE. IOI 

Philipine's kindness was not confined to the sick ; she provided 
young girls with marriage portions, and aided the needy in so 
many ways that she was called " the lover of all sad souls." 

To have emulated her bounty would have required an income 
far greater than Valerie's modest allowance. She could not charge 
herself with the maintenance of others, no matter how warmly she 
might be interested in them, and yet she could not quite give up 
the hope of being helpful to them in some way. Whenever she 
entered the church of the Franciscans, as she frequently did to 
have a quiet little chat with her bronze knights and ladies, the 
dead Philipine seemed to call to her from her tomb in the silver 
chapel and ask her what she was doing for the poor people near 
Ambras. 

At length Valerie made her resolution. " If I cannot person- 
ally support the destitute girls who are my neighbors, perhaps I 
can help them to make themselves self-supporting." She organized 
a cooking and sewing class, each meeting once a week at her own 
home, and taught these classes herself. They were very popular, and 
the girls were quick to learn. The classes had been in progress 
only a few months when the girls perplexed her with the question, 
" What shall we do when we have learned to be good housekeepers 
and servants ? Where can we obtain employment ? " 

Valerie endeavored to find situations for her protegees, but 
there was little demand. " We will go to America," said one of 
the girls, who had packed all her possessions in a little hand- 
bag and considered herself ready to start; "surely there is oppor- 
tunity there for skilled labor." Valerie thought there was, but 
hesitated to send her girls out friendless into a strange land. " I 
hope to go back to America myself," she told them, "and I will 
see what arrangements I can make for you." 

Meantime, in anticipation of this probable solution of her prob- 
lem, she began to teach her pupils to speak English. 



102 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



This philanthropic work did not occupy all of Valerie's time. 
She wrote a little from time to time, sending short stories and 
articles to journals and magazines, which invariably returned them 
with polite promptitude. She was not altogether discouraged by 
this want of success, but very sensibly tried to discover its cause. 
" Perhaps my subjects are not sufficiently popular," she thought ; 
" I must write of something in which people are interested. The 
Passion Play is surely attracting a great deal of attention; I think 

I will attend it. Maria, my best pupil, can 
carry on the classes for me while I give 
myself a little vacation." 

The accomplishment of her design was 
postponed for a time by the arrival of 
company, — the Contessa Farniente of 
Venice, mother of the count whose ac- 
quaintance we have already made. The 
contessa was of Austrian extraction; her 
father was a distant relative of the Count 
von Hohenberg, and they called each other 
cousin. Her visit to Innsbruck was osten- 
sibly to look after old title-deeds of Aus- 
trian property, which had long since been 
occupied by other possessors and would involve much litigation. 
It would seem to the casual observer that the cdntessa's visit was 
rather thrown away as far as any business result was concerned. 
But such an observer could not have fathomed the depths of the 
contessa's scheming. She knew that her " cousin " had lately 
returned from America, and that he had brought with him a daughter 
of marriageable age who would inherit half of his little fortune, 
which, although not large, was perhaps as considerable as she 
could hope to obtain for her son. The connection, too, was noble; 
and mercenary as the contessa was, she counted the possession 




READY FOR AMERICA. 



VALERIE. 



IO 



of " von " before the name as equal in value to several thousands 
of plebeian dollars. She wore, suspended from her neck by a slen- 
der chain, a much-flattered miniature of her son, which in a moment 
of enthusiasm she presented to Valerie. She scanned the girl nar- 
rowly, and while she did not approve of her extravagancies (this 
was the term which she applied to the classes), she could not help 
admiring her gentle char- 
acter and lovable dispo- 
sition. Accordingly one 
day shortly before her de- 
parture she opened her 
mind to Valerie's father, 
making a formal propo- 
sition for Valerie's hand 
for her son. It was true 
that she had not. con- 
sulted with her son, and 
that the two young peo- 
ple had never seen each 
other, but that was a mat- 
ter of trifling importance. 
She half convinced the 
count of the suitability of 
the marriage. " It will 
unite two branches of 

our family," she explained. "My son is partly Austrian already; 
with an Austrian wife he will become entirely so. If you desire 
it he will drop his Italian name, become naturalized, and as a sub- 
ject of the Kaiser be known only by his Austrian title, — the Graf 
von Adlersruhe. I will bestow all these title-deeds to properties in 
the Tyrol upon your daughter. You are in a position to secure 
them to her, and there will be less difficulty in persuading the 




THE COUNTESS. 



I04 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

Emperor to grant them to the daughter of an Austrian noble than 
to an Italian. In return I ask only what dowry you may have 
already decided to give your daughter." 

The count assented to the suitability of the marriage. He 
thought that imperial favor might obtain the reversion of property 
long since confiscated, and that a diplomatic position could be 
secured for the Graf von Adlersruhe. As for Valerie, he had 
decided to portion her with property amounting in value to about 
twenty thousand dollars. 

The contessa winced ; she had expected a much larger sum, 
but the other considerations were not to be despised, and she 
murmured : " It is little, but Valerie is a fortune in herself ; we 
will take her without dowry, and we will consider the marriage as 
agreed upon." 

u Not so fast," replied the count. " Valerie must be consulted ; 
if your son cannot win her heart, these arrangements go for nothing." 

" That goes without saying," the contessa replied proudly. " My 
son is invincible among ladies ; he has received many offers of 
flattering alliances ; he cannot fail to please the high-born lady 
Valerie. If you will invite him to visit here the affair is done." 
The contessa waved her hand with a gesture expressive of as 
much certainty as if she were Darius announcing a law of the 
Medes and Persians, " which altereth not." 

An invitation was accordingly sent to Count Farniente to visit his 
Austrian cousins at Innsbruck at any time during the next month. 

The contessa accompanied this invitation with a letter of expla- 
nation. She wrote to her son : — 

" I have arranged a very satisfactory marriage for you with the daughter of 
the Count von Hohenberg. The count is a little stingy in regard to immediate 
settlements, -4 but what of that? He cannot take his money with him, and Vale- 
.rie, when he dies, will have half, — perhaps more, for her brother is a soldier 
and may do us the favor of getting himself shot. The girl herself is handsome 




THE ANCESTRAL CASTLE. 



VALERIE. 107 

and lady-like enough not to disgrace us ; in short, I am convinced you can do 
no better. I am tired of your gallantries ; it is time for you to be serious. 
Report yourself at once at Innsbruck and write the result to your adoring 
mother." 

The contessa took her departure for Meran to inspect the ances- 
tral castle which, ruined and mortgaged, — its lands overrun by 
peasants, who had settled upon them, its timber felled, its game 
dispersed, — seemed a very unprofitable piece of real estate. Still 
it had its possibilities, and she determined to await here the result 
of her son's visit in Innsbruck, amusing herself in the interim in 
planning the restorations which would be begun as soon as the 
needed funds were secured. 

Valerie knew nothing of the disposition which had been made 
of her hand. Her father was a little uneasy and dissatisfied in his 
own mind. He talked the matter over with his wife, and received 
no consolation or encouragement from her. 

" I would rather Valerie would marry an American," said the 
good lady. " I like America, and so does she." 

"And I like Americans," replied Count von Hohenberg; "but 
I do not understand their way of managing these matters. Do 
vou remember my friend Judge Austin ? He has a son of whom 
I heard only good. If we had been in Austria I would have said 
to the judge : ' Here is my daughter Valerie ; what are your 
expectations for your son ? ' But I was told that this was not 
the American custom, that every proposal of this sort must come 
from the gentleman. So I waited; but although the judge saw 
Valerie once when she was at home for the holidays he made no 
proposition to me on behalf of his son. Strange country, strange 
manners ! " 

A few days later the count handed Valerie a letter. " I have 
just received this from a gentleman whose acquaintance I made 
in Washington. It seems that his son has been appointed consul 



108 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

to Innsbruck, and the father recommends the young man to my 
good offices. As I feel myself somewhat indebted to the elder 
Mr. Austin, I suppose we must ask him to dine with us." 

" As you please, little Father," Valerie replied ; " Mother, I 
am sure, will be quite able to entertain the young man. I was 
just about to ask your permission to spend a week or two at 
Ober Ammergau." 

" A week or two ! I can well imagine that you would be inter- 
ested in the Passion Play ; but though it is rather a lengthy affair, 
one can certainly see it in less than a fortnight." 

" Not as I would- like. I want to attend the representation 
several times to study it very thoroughly. I am very much inter- 
ested in it, and I think 1 would like to write a critical review of 
the performance." 

" So ! The same idea has occurred to other writers. I fear you 
will evolve nothing particularly new. However, the occupation will 
keep you out of mischief. There can be no particular haste about 
it. I have invited young Mr. Austin to dinner for Wednesday." 

" Indeed ! I did not understand that he had arrived in Innsbruck." 

" The young man presented this letter in person, and I was very 
favorably impressed by him." 

" We can invite him again, if you think best, when Elsie is here," 
Valerie replied indifferently. " As she does not speak German 
fluently, it w T ill be convenient to have an American acquaintance to 
assist in entertaining her; but really, little Father, can you not 
excuse me for Wednesday? The Von Webers intend to drive to 
Ober Ammergau on Monday in their own carriage, and have invited 
me to form one of their party. I am not likely to have such pleasant 
company again." 

" But the Von Webers surely do not intend to remain a fort- 
night ? " 

" They will stay long enough for me to find suitable lodgings 



VALERIE. I I I 

before their return, and perhaps you and Mother will decide to 
come over and see one of the performances and bring me back." 

Valerie always had her own way, and she set out with her 
friends on the following Monday, as she had planned. 

It was a little odd that although Dorothy's letter telling Valerie of 
the competition for the best essay on the Ober Ammergau Passion 
Play had miscarried, she had decided, independently of any such 
motive, to write exactly such a review. There are many coincidences 
of this kind in life which suggest an occult influence, — a subtle, 
magnetic wave, passing from one intelligence to another without 
any apparent means of communication. Such magnetism is, how- 
ever, rarely of any practical assistance ; it is oftener misleading, 
inducing us to say just the wrong thing, — to speak of divorces to 
people who are unhappy in their marriage relations, or of crime 
to those whose friends have brought them into disgrace. We have 
vague forebodings which come to nothing, or stop just short of 
averting disaster ; the magnetic influence is fitful and untrustworthy, 
and inclined to be tricky rather than benevolent in its workings. 

Valerie intended to write her essay, but there was nothing to sug- 
gest her sending it to Vassar. If anything occurred to defer Elsie's 
visit until after the middle of September, she might not know of 
the offered prize until it would be too late to compete ; for one of 
the conditions was that all the papers must be in the hands of the 
Professor before the 30th. To Dorothy there had come a new 
temptation. The letter which she had written Valerie in a moment 
of exaltation had been returned to her through the Dead Letter 
Office. In her excitement she had neglected to write the word 
"Innsbruck" on the envelope; and the United States Post Office, 
seeing the uselessness of forwarding such a letter, had sent it to 
her New York address. As her mother had enclosed it in one 
of her letters, it had followed Dorothy over Europe, and had at 
last reached her at Baveno, — in an evil time for any renunciation. 



112 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

It seemed to Dorothy, as she read again the generous letter which 
she had written her rival, that she had fully done all that was 
required of her. It was not her fault, she argued, that the informa- 
tion had not reached Valerie. Fate had so ordered it, and Fate 
alone was responsible for the result. That there was something 
fallacious in her reasoning she might have known from her unwil 
lingness to confide in Elsie the fact of the return of the letter. 
The knowledge that it lay in her travelling letter-case beside her 
own half-written essay burned like a canker into her conscience, and 
took away all the pleasure from her tour ; but she was all the more 
determined that come what might she would make no sign. 

In the mean time, Gilbert Austin arrayed himself in his London- 
made dress suit and engaged a handsome equipage in which to be 
driven out to the chateau to dine with the Graf von Hohenberg. 
He told himself that he did this only to fulfil his father's wish ; 
that he had no interest whatever in the count's remarkable daugh- 
ter; that on the contrary he anticipated being much bored by the 
interview : but with masculine inconsistency, he had indulged in a 
button-hole bouquet, which certainly was not assumed in honor of 
the ex-minister; and when informed that the daughter of the house 
was absent at Ober Ammergau, something like real disappointment 
gave additional gloom to the very stately dinner. 

" Thank you, madam, but I hope never to repeat this very 
dismal experience," he said to himself, as the Countess kindly pressed 
him at parting to visit them frequently. Then, as he threw him- 
self into a comfortable attitude in his carriage, he added, without 
being in the least conscious of what had suggested the idea, — 

" Ober Ammergau ! strange I have not thought of it before ! I 
believe I will go over and see the Sunday performance." 




CHAPTER VI. 

HIGHER ALTITUDES. 

HEN Dorothy entered her room on the night of 
the fete, it almost seemed to her that she was 
walking in a dream. She stepped to the window 
and stood looking out upon the moonlit lake, 
until Elsie recalled her to herself. 

" What is it, Dorothy ? I am sure that some- 
thing has happened." 
" Yes, dear." 

" The count has proposed ? " 

" Yes — no — well, not exactly ; " and Dorothy related the con- 
versation in the boat. 

" It strikes me," said Elsie, practically, " that he was a trifle 
indefinite." 

" On reflection it seems so to me ; but oh, Elsie ! if you could have 
seen his look, — it spoke volumes." 

" Humph ! Well, supposing he does come up like a man, shall 
you accept him ? " 

" I don't know, I have n't decided ; I am glad that he did not ask 
me explicitly. I want time to consider." 

; ' That is what they all say," thought Elsie, but what she said was, 
" How much time does it take to know whether you love him ? " 

" That is not everything," Dorothy replied, evading the question. 
" It is a great alliance, and it opens great opportunities." 



114 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

" Yes. I was thinking to-night what an absolute queen the 
Countess Borromeo is over her people. Such a position must 
involve one in grave responsibilities." 

" I was not thinking of that," Dorothy replied. " I was imagining 
the delight of revelling in all these treasures of art and luxury, of 
arranging and re-arranging to suit one's own taste, and of the fun 
of outraging the ideas of some of the old noblesse. I would like to 
show the old-fogy nobility what kind of a countess a live American 
girl would make." « 

" If you did nothing for the poor people on your domain, how 
would you differ from other pleasure-seekers ? " 

" I probably should do something for them. It is very uncomfort- 
able to see people miserable. If, as you say, this is an opportunity 
for doing good, there is another reason for me to accept it. I wish 
Mother were here to let me talk it over with her. Of course I shall 
write her, but it will be so long before I can receive her answer that 
I shall have to decide before it comes." 

" Mrs. Irving can advise you." 

" I know in advance what Mrs. Irving will say. She made a few 
derogatory remarks at the beginning, in order to wash her hands of 
all responsibility of influencing me in the matter ; but she thinks it a 
great match, and she has good-naturedly been doing all she can to 
help it along. She is an excellent chaperon, but what a girl needs 
at such a time as this is not a chaperon but a mother." 

It was a genuine cry from the heart, and a piteous one ; but Elsie 
was sleepy; as the sister of John she was also a little angry, and she 
said rather crossly, " Well, since you don't seem to know your own 
mind, I would advise you to sleep on it. There seems to be no im- 
mediate necessity of your deciding, for the count appears to me to 
be in a similar state of nebulous incertitude." 

But Dorothy was sure that the count was quite in earnest, and she 
lay awake until dawn, thinking it over and over. Marriage was doubt- 



HIGHER ALTITUDES. 



"5 



less a very solemn thing ; but then old maidenhood, lonely and deso- 
late, seemed to her a great deal more solemn. The count was not 
absolutely repugnant to her, and the life which he represented was 
very fascinating. The dawn was breaking when she finally fell asleep, 
saying to herself, " There is plenty of time to decide," but knowing 
all' the time that when she promised to stand upon his staircase she 
had already decided. 

Two days later the girls with their host and hostess and the 
count started on a long ride to the pilgrimage shrine of Varallo. 
Mr. Irving was a scholarly man, much interested in hunting out re- 
markable places little known to the ordinary tourist. Varallo he had 
assured the girls was one of these. The excursion, during the morn- 
ing of the first day, was a donkey ride as far as the Albergo Motte- 
rone, an inn near the summit of the mountain of the same name, which 
has been called the Rigi of northern Italy. Here they left their 
donkeys and climbed to the top on foot. The view was one of great 
beauty, and gave them an excellent idea of the topography of the 
Italian Lakes. The entire region was spread out at their feet like a 
great map. Seven different lakes were visible, shining like silver 
mirrors in emerald settings, while the grand panorama of the Alps 
stretched across the northern horizon, from Monte Viso in the west 
to the Ortler group in the east. " The Ortler Spitz is in the Tyrol," 
said Mr. Irving. " It is one of the grandest of the great brother- 
hood of giants. It seems small only because it is so far away." 

" I hope to climb it," Dorothy replied ; " we are on our way to the 
Tyrol." 

" If you carry out your intention you will perform a feat which few- 
women have accomplish," said the count. " I have myself attempt to 
climb that mountain, but have not succeed. I have one castle not so 
far from it. I have inherit it from the father to my mother. He was 
one Austrian officer who was station in Italy, but he was taken pris- 
oner to one Italian, my grandmother, and he nevermore went back to 



n6 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



his castle. When my mother was a signorina he would say she also 
must marry herself to an Austrian ; but no, it was not so to be, for she 
fell in love to my father, a Venetian of the Venetians, who never could 
tear himself from the piazza of San Marco." 




THE ORTLER SPITZ. 



" And the castle," Dorothy asked, " what is it called, and who lives 
there now ? " They had wandered a little away from the others, and 
the count replied, " Who live there ? One whole village of peasants 
have planted themselves on my estate, have cut down my forest, and 
destroy my game. The castle is name Adlersruhe. It is in ruin ; but 
it could be restored, though it would take much money. I would like 
to have you see it, if you make your journey near by. It would make 
a not so bad residence in the hunting season. I have known some 



m 








HIGHER ALTITUDES. 119 



Americans who have very good taste to amuse themselves to restore 
old ruins. I wonder would you find some divertissement to restore 
my castle. If so you would like to own it, it is at your service, and 
I will have the papers made out. It is worse very little as now ; but 
I assure you it has its possibilities, and I have often dream to beautify 
it, — but alas ! I am too poor." 

What did he mean ? Was he trying to sell his castle to her ? 
But for the evening of the fete she would have thought so. In the 
light of that evening, however, the words seemed to take on the sig- 
nification, " With all my worldly goods I thee endow." Still, did he 
mean quite that ? This was the first time that she had met him since 
the night upon the lake, and in the presence of others there had been 
no opportunity for a confirmation of what she had understood as a 
declaration. Even now Mr. Irving approached them and handed 
Dorothy a field-glass. 

"That great mountain is Monte Rosa," he said, "with the Cima 
di Jazzi and the Strahlhorn beside it. Just visible away to the north 
is the Jungfrau ; and if you turn and look southward across the plains 
of Lombardy you will see Milan with its great cathedral. What a 
stretch for human vision to take in from one point ! " 

" So that white speck is Milan Cathedral ! " Dorothy replied. " It 
was built of marble quarried at Baveno, and the Borromeos seem to 
have poured out their wealth upon it. We saw a bust of Cardinal 
Carlo Borromeo at Isola Bella which interested me greatly, and we 
heard at St. Gotthard that he founded the hospice there. Can you 
give me his history?" 

" He was born in 1538 at the ancestral seat of the Borromeos," 
said Mr. Irving, " and he became the most noted man of his family. 
A nephew of Pius IV., he was made archbishop of Milan and cardinal 
at the age of twenty-two." 

" He did not look like Browning's description of the church-men 
of that period," Dorothy replied, — 



120 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

" ' Gay Abati with the well turned leg 

And rose i' the hat rim, canons, cross at neck, 
And silk mask in the pocket of the gown.' " 

" No," said Mr. Irving, " he was an enthusiast. He gave up all 
the luxury of wealth and nobility to become a true saint and hero 
during the great plague and famine in Milan, in 1570 and 1576, saving 
the lives of many by his energy and devotion, and he died shortly 
after, 'exhausted by his labors and austerities.'" 

" He probably had no taste for the ' lust of the eyes and the pride 
of life,' " Dorothy replied, " and so his good deeds may not have been 
so very meritorious after all." 

"I prefer," said Mr. Irving, "to give him full credit for self-sacri- 
fice, for in the early part of his career he was deeply interested in the 
building of Milan Cathedral, and the greater part of his income went 
to speeding the work. If it had been finished in his life-time it would 
doubtless have been completed in the pure Gothic style in which it 
was begun, instead of being what it is now, — a patchwork of several 
styles. Doubtless he hoped to make it his life-work, — a grand monu- 
ment which should carry down his 'name to the ages ; but when the 
need came he dropped the work and applied all his money, influence,, 
and thought to pure philanthropy, and so died, leaving the cathedral 
unfinished." 

"That was indeed noble," Dorothy admitted, roused to enthu- 
siasm. " It does seem better after all to live for others than for one's 
self alone. But what grand opportunities he had ! I doubt if he 
could accomplish as much if he lived in our age." 

" I can imagine him doing just as great a work now," said Elsie. 
" And I am sure that on that little fishing-island there is work enough 
to fill the life of a saint." 

" Perhaps you are right," Dorothy replied. A new idea had come 
to her. " If I were a countess," she thought, " and had an entire 
village of my own to experiment upon, I might accomplish something 



HIGHER ALTITUDES. 121 

for humanity." The idea was not a transient one ; it took root and 
grew, developing in many ways in her imagination. A sentimental 
fancy at first, it was destined in time to become more unselfish and 
practical. At present, however, it was only a romantic day-dream, 
in which she saw herself as a modern Saint Elizabeth, robed in a 
mediaeval gown of green velvet, dispensing alms to grateful peasants. 

Descending from the summit of the mountain, they lunched at the 
inn, and then continued their ride to the town of Orta, where they 
spent the night. 

The next morning they crossed the lake in a fishing-boat, their 
destination being a pilgrimage mountain near the town of Varallo to 
the west of the lake. The daylight effects on this lake, while very dif- 
ferent from the enchantment of the moonlight on Lago Maggiore, 
were none the less bewitching. Dr. Bartol's description of the reflec- 
tions on the Traunsee might with equal truth have been written here : 

" The huge forms of the inverted hills ran downward as far as 
upward in their erectness they climbed. What refinement of pleasure 
was there in remarking the minuteness as well as vastness of the 
copy ! How we admired the submarine curving lines, the diverse 
shades, each vapor-shrouded point jutting from the mighty mass, the 
shreds of woolly cloud floating underneath, and the winds blowing 
gently round the spectral mountain's brow as truly as about the other 
mountain on high ! How the double glory divided our regard, till we 
drew toward the shore from which we were to roll in wheels again 
by a road hedged in on one side by verdant woods, and on the other 
by streams that with their clear, delicious color told us whence the 
lake derived its crystal character to make it like 'one entire and 
perfect chrysolite.' " 

It was all true to the carriage drive through the woods to Varallo, 
and the beauty was of a more wholesome kind than the night-witchery 
of the fete on Lago Maggiore. Dorothy realized that — 

" Colors seen by candle-light 
Do not look the same by day." 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



A life of selfish ease and indolence did not seem so altogether de- 
sirable now. There was a fresh, invigorating breeze which tempted 
her to leave the carriage and walk briskly in advance of it, with an 

occasional side excursion 
into the woods for wild 
flowers, — the purple cycla- 
men, the narcissus, and the 
laburnum, which grew so 
plentifully along the way. 
They found the Sacro 
Monte del Nuova Geru- 
salemme a most curious 
and interesting spot. Fif- 
ty chapels or oratories 
were scattered along the 
side of the mountain. 
Some of these were of 
handsome architecture, 
but it was not intended 
that worshippers should 
enter them. They were 
already occupied by a con- 
gregation of terra cotta or 
porcelain figures, which 
formed a series of sacred 
tableaux to be looked at 
through peep-holes in the 
door, and represented scenes from the life of Christ. Some of the 
groups were as grotesque as wax figures with their real hair and 
glassy eyes. To deepen the disgust of the spectator, the executioners 
in the crucifixion were represented with goitres on their throats. 
There were other groups, however, which deserved to rank as works 




CHAPEL IN THE ROCK. 



HIGHER ALTITUDES. I2 ? 

of art with those of Lucca della Robbia, — notably some executed by 
Guadenzio Ferrari, pupil and friend of Raphael, and others by Fia- 
mingo, the renowned sculptor of children. The " Murder of the Inno- 
cents " comprised sixty figures ; and the " Entombment " was arranged 
with impressive effect in a vault where little light was admitted, 
and the figures seen dimly through the gloom had a certain weird 
realism which was quite indescribable. 

" This is certainly the most whimsical, the most charming, the 
most deliciously absurd place in the world," Dorothy exclaimed, 
delighted with the ingenuity displayed by the founder of the Via 
Sacra. 

" He was clever enough to have managed the plot and characters 
of a three-volume novel or a five-act drama," Mr. Irving replied ; 
" and he knew well the value of a good send-off, for he persuaded 
Carlo Borromeo to recommend the place as a pilgrimage mountain, 
and after that its success was assured." 

" I think I understand why Borromeo could conscientiously 
recommend it to the ignorant peasants," Elsie replied ; " they had 
no Bibles, and could not have read them had they possessed them. 
They looked at these representations, even the coarse and painful 
ones, with none of the critical or amused feeling with which we 
regard them, but with a childlike awe and docility ; and undoubtedly 
the tragic story of the sufferings and death of Christ must have 
made a vivid impression on their susceptible minds. Borromeo 
probably thought as Paul did, when he said to the Church at 
Corinth, ' I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual . . . but as 
unto babes in Christ. 1 " 

The higher altitudes had dispelled the glamour which drifted like 
a miasma over the lovely lake, and recalled them all to their real 
estimates of life. To the count this awakening had not had the 
same elevating effect. Waters cannot rise above their source, and 
he realized simply that he had been carried further by his emotions 



I2 4 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



than prudence would have permitted. He rode at Mrs. Irving's 
side as they returned to Baveno. She was an old friend of Doro- 
thy's family, and was likely to be well informed concerning their 
circumstances. He determined to confide in her. 

" My friend," he said, " I am one fool ; I have allow myself to 
fall in love with Miss Dorothy." 

" I regard that as simply a proof of your good taste, Count," 
replied Mrs. Irving. " Where could you find a more lovely girl ? " 

" And yet I am still one fool," he persisted ; " for I have no right 
to fall in love except to a rich young lady. You know my mother." 

" Yes, I know that the contessa has expectations for you ; but 
I do not know the lowest figure that would satisfy her in the 
matter of a dowry." 

"Alas! I know it too well; it has been too often discussed. 
My bride must restore Adlersruhe and the palazzo in Venice, and 
bring enough property besides to enable us to live comfortably upon 
its income." 

Mrs. Irving gave her donkey a vicious cut with her riding-whip. 
"Your mother is unreasonable," she said. 

" So I say," assented the count. " I have told her that we have 
now enough to live upon. For myself I am not mercenary; I will 
ask nossing, — hear you, nossing ;" and the count waved his hands 
magnificently, thereby dropping his reins and starting his beast into 
a canter. 

" You are more disinterested than I had thought," Mrs. Irving 
remarked, when she had opportunity. 

"Am I not?" the count replied with a complacent smile. "I 
am a poor man, but I am also a proud. I will accept not one 
penny from my wife, for myself or for my mother. On the con- 
traire, I will settle on her Adlersruhe, and if my honored father- 
in-law will also make one leetle settlement on her — not on me — 
I will be content." 




TVROLESE SCENERY 



HIGHER ALTITUDES. 



27 



" Mr. Thome's eldest daughter was married last year," said Mrs. 
Irving, " and her father at that time made a generous division of 
his property among his children." 

" Listen," cried the count, delighted ; " if the future contessa 
restores the castle, and brings enough income for her own personal 
expense, — her dress, her servants, her horses, her travelling, her 
jewels, and all zose leetle necessaries, — and if my future honored 
father-in-law will make suitable provision in his will for his future 
grand-children, why, then I am content to set myself one side. You 
have not thought me capable of such renunciation ; is it not so ? 
But when one loves, one is capable of sacrifice. Can you tell me 
what shall be the dowry of Miss Dorothy ? " 

" Her father has given her ten thousand dollars," said Mrs. 
Irving, dryly. 

" Ten thousand ! " almost screamed the count ; " the very least 
that my mother would consent to is one hundred thousand." 

" Then I fear, Count, that your self-renunciation will be of no avail." 

" But surely when her father die he will leave her more. Mr. 
Austin assure me he was one very rich man. Ten thousand, — that 
would last very well one year perhaps." 

" Mr. Thorne promised his children nothing further. That is 
considered a very fair provision in America." 

The count smote his forehead with a gesture of despair. " My 
heart ees proken," he said. 

" Oh, no, Count. I hardly think it is as bad as that ; and Miss 
Dorothy is fortunately a very sensible girl. I think that when I 
explain matters to her she will be very willing to release you." 

" No explain ees necessary ! " he exclaimed ; " do you think I am 
so deeshonorable as to make proposal before — " 

" Before you were sure that it was quite to your advantage to 
do so? I see that I have wronged you, Count, and I beg your 
pardon. I am glad that you have not proposed to Dorothy. It 



128 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



would be rather awkward to explain these little matters if you had 
said anything." 

The count stood waiting as the girls reached the villa gate. 
"May I have the pleasure to row you in the lake- this evening?" 

he asked, on leaving. 

After dinner the two 
girls chatted merrily as they 
dressed for the evening. 

" I am certain, Dorothy," 
said Elsie, " that he will 
speak his mind to-night, for 
he looked terribly in earnest. 
I suppose I must go with 
you for propriety's sake ; but 
I will sit at the other end 
of the boat, and I '11 be 
obligingly deaf." 

Dorothy laughed a care- 
less little laugh of triumph 
and gratified vanity, as she 
pinned a tiny coronet of 
pearls in her velvet bonnet- 
strings ; and hearing a step on the pavement outside, fluttered down 
into the reception-room to. meet her suitor. 

A servant from the hotel was talking with one of the maids out- 
side the open window. 

" She may look like a marchesa, but she is only an American." 
" Have a care, Asunta," replied the other. " If she is not a mar- 
chesa now, she may soon be. That is what these rich American girls 
come to Italy for, — to buy themselves titles." 

A wave of indignant color swept over Dorothy's face, and sub- 
sided as she thought, " What the girl says is true." 




THE COUNT S LETTER. 



HIGHER A L TITL 7 t£S. 



2 9 



Asunta entered, bearing a bouquet of stefanotis and a note. She 
dropped a low courtesy, and handed them to Dorothy. 

"Count Farniente sent them by Giovanni." Dorothy placed the 
bouquet upon the table, and waited until Asunta had left the room 
before opening the note. It was very short, but perfectly intelligible, 
for the Count wrote better than he spoke. 

Most Honored and Dear Friend, — I am called suddenly to Venice, 
to my mother. You will comprehend that there are duties which are cruel but 
inexorable ; such is this one, — to bid you farewell. Deign to accept the as- 
surance of my most distinguished esteem. 

Farniente. 

The count had spoken his mind. 




CHAPTER VII. 

OBER AMMERGAU. 

ALERIE'S journey to Ober Ammergau had not been 
as pleasant as she anticipated. There had been a 
great deal of rainy weather that summer in the valley 
of the Inn, and scarcely had the Von Webers' car- 
riage set out from Innsbruck when the heavy gray 
clouds, which had threatened in the early morning, closed upon them 
with a steady downfall of determined, disheartening rain. It blotted 
out the beautiful mountain landscape, rendered it necessary to close 
the carriage windows, and even then trickled through the cracks in a 
most disagreeable manner. It was in vain that Valerie hopefully 
persisted in discovering signs of clearing ; the rain obstinately con- 
tinued to pour, preventing the travellers from varying their journey 
by walking part of the way, as they had intended, and dampening the 
most determined efforts at cheerful conversation. They had ex- 
pected to reach Ober Ammergau by evening ; but sunset found them 
instead only at the village of Partenkirchen, with fully a third of their 
journey still before them, their horses exhausted, the roads in a heavy 
state, with possible wash-outs in dangerous places, and the blackest 
of nights settling down about them. Under these circumstances it 
seemed wise to remain until morning at the village inn ; but though 
of unusual capacity, it was already crowded with other pilgrims to 
Ober Ammergau. The long tables of the large dining-room were 



OBER AMMERGAU. 



I3 1 



beset by hungry people of different nationalities and stations in life, 
and the greatest confusion prevailed. The inn-keeper promised how- 
ever to " do his best," and finally succeeded in lodging the party at 
the house of a peasant. " If 
Partenkirchen, which is only 
one of the many approaches 
to Ober Ammergau, is so 
crowded, have you any hope 
that we will be able to find 
accommodations at the vil- 
lage itself ? " Valerie asked 
somewhat anxiously. 

" I have telegraphed," re- 
plied Herr von Weber, " to 



the burgomaster, and I have 
no doubt that he will bestow 
us all comfortably. At every 
representation there is the 
same influx of sight-seers, 
and I never heard that the 
mixed multitude were not 
provided for in some seem- 
ingly miraculous way. At 
these times every peasant 
opens his house, proud of 
the wide popularity of his 
passion play, and glad to 
have strangers billeted upon 
him by the burgomaster." 

There was a delusive gleam of sunshine in the morning, and the 
party continued their journey, all asserting that they would not 
mind rainy weather upon their way, if only they were granted sun- 
shine on the morrow for the performance of the great spectacle. 




BOUND FOR OBER AMMERGAU. 



132 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



" It will make very little difference whether it rains or shines," 1 
said Herr von Weber. " The actors will go through their parts, 
with the same conscientiousness, careless that the rain is drenching 
their magnificent costumes; and the audience will sit and take it 
with the same indifference, if not unconsciousness, for eight mortal 
hours." 

" Is the auditorium unprotected from the weather ? " Valerie 
asked. 

" The more expensive seats at the back are roofed ; but several 
thousand are entirely open, and no one is allowed to obstruct the view 
with an umbrella." 

They had reached Ettal with its great rambling monastery, which 
Valerie would have liked to visit; but the rain had begun again, the 
streets were rivulets, and Herr von Weber advised her to remain in 
the carriage. From this point on, the highways were filled with 
every description of vehicle on its way to the same destination. 

Ober Ammergau itself struck Valerie, as they approached it, as 
remarkably prosperous in appearance. The houses were large, many 
of them new, with picturesque, overhanging roofs like chalets, and 
the walls were decorated with frescoes, generally of a religious char- 
acter. As the greater part of the inhabitants were wood carvers and 
their favorite subject the crucifix, the startling sign " Herrgott- 
schnitzer " (carver of the Lord) was sufficiently common. 

They drove directly to the burgomaster's, and were assigned 
quarters in different parts of the village. Valerie was sent to the 
house of Annas the High Priest, and the rest of the party to that of 
Judas. 

Valerie found that Annas in his everyday character was a merry 
little " schneidermeister," or master-tailor, whose thrifty wife further 
added to the resources of the family by keeping a grocer's shop in the 
front room of their dwelling. The large room behind the shop was 
the kitchen; a lons^ hall ran beside it to the little court, at the rear of 



OBER AMMKRGAU. 



*33 



which the tailor's apprentices were at work in a little shop. A rough 
staircase, hardly more than a ladder, led to three chambers, which 
were more comfortable than might have been expected from the ruder 
furnishing of the rest of the house. Indeed, every house in Ober 
Ammergau has so long been an inn that the inhabitants have come 
to understand what com- 

1 



forts are expected by their 
guests, and every house- 
wife is well supplied with 
good bed-room furniture. 
The tailor's wife had suf- 
ficient bedding and table- 
linen of good quality to 
furnish all her daughters 
for housekeeping, and she 
had also a service of fine 
porcelain for the use of 
her guests, whose meals 
were served them in their 
own rooms. Valerie was 
given a very tiny room, 
but on explaining that she 
intended to remain in the 
village for a fortnight was 
promised the large front 
chamber which, it was ex- 
pected, would be vacated on Thursday morning. 

In spite of the rain the village band paraded the streets during 
the evening, as is the custom on the eve of every performance ; and 
Valerie was awakened in the morning by the report of cannon, 
announcing the daybreak of the great festival. 

Annas had succeeded in obtaining covered seats for them all, and 




JUDAS ISCAKIOT. 



134 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



Valerie picked her way through the crowded streets blocked by con- 
stantly arriving omnibuses and stages, toward the great amphitheatre. 
Frau Annas informed her that the train which should have arrived 
from Munich at the neighboring village of Oberau, their nearest 
railway station, at four on the previous afternoon, had been detained 
by the flooded condition of the road ; and the travellers had only 
reached Ober Ammergau at midnight, when they had sought shelter by 






THE PROSCENIUM. 



knocking at people's windows. Some of them she feared had been 
obliged to sit up all night in their damp clothing. 

The theatre, constructed to hold six thousand persons, was crowded ; 
and Valerie, who had wisely taken her seat early, interested herself in 
noticing the construction of the stage. It was different from and 
larger than any that she had ever seen. At the back was a second 
smaller stage framed by a temple-like peristyle and roof. On either 
side of this inner stage were large arches, behind which very well- 
painted scenery represented streets in Jerusalem, whose houses of 



OBER AMMERCAU. 



35 




Oriental architecture were shadowed by waving palm-trees. Down 

these streets wound 

the processions 

which appeared 

with such effect in 

the play. The 

arches which 

framed the streets 

united the inner 

theatre with two 

houses of genuine 

carpentry, the one 

on the right the 

palace of Annas, 

that on the left of 

Pilate ; and on the 

balcony and stair- 
case of Pilate's house several of the most thrilling scenes of the 

in turn connected with 
the sides of the stage by 
two long semicircular col- 
onnades remotely suggest- 
ing those of St. Peter's 
at Rome. Through these 
colonnades the chorus in- 
variably made their ap- 
pearance, filing from 
each side, taking their 
places on the large open 
stage or proscenium, and 
explaining each act of 
the drama in sonor r re- 



THE ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM. 



play were enacted. These houses were 




GETHSEMANE. 



citative. 



Thev were clothed in classical draperies, and had no part in 



i3 6 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



the real play ; but so dignified was their appearance that they did not 
seem out of character with what followed. Indeed, it seemed to Va- 
lerie that these might be the Roman sibyls who foretold the coming 
of the Saviour. Valerie, although a Protestant, had been brought up 
among Catholics, and was so accustomed to see Christ represented in 
art and in every wayside shrine that she did not feel the shock which 
must invariably be the experience of every American beholder, when 




ORDERING THE PASSOVER. 



Christ first appears riding on the ass in the first scene, which repre- 
sents the entry into Jerusalem. She knew too that the performance 
of the play had been instituted in fulfilment of avow registered by 
the inhabitants of the village in the year 1633 at the convent of Ettal, 
on deliverance from a pestilence, — " that in thankful devotion, and 
for edifying contemplation, they would every ten years publicly repre- 
sent the Passion of Jesus, the Saviour of the world." 



OBER AMMERGAU. 



37 



This was the reason that so many representations of the crucifixion 
bore underneath it the words, "Durch Seine Wunden sind wir geheilet" 
(Through His wounds we are healed). At each returning decade (ex- 
cept during the Franco- Prussian war, when it was postponed one year) 
the Mystery has been repeated ; and although it has been asserted 
that what was originally ah act of devotion only was now mixed with 
the motives of gain and love of applause, still Valerie was sure that 
religious fervor was the mainspring of the really wonderful acting. 
There was a rapt interest, such as she had never seen in any other 
performance. Not only the principal actors threw themselves into their 




BEFORE HEROD. 



parts, but every performer down to the merest child was possessed by 
an intense ambition to make his part absolutely perfect. Through 
the long duration of the tableaux the most difficult poses were sus- 
tained with the immobility of statues. There was no gesture or 
glance which was not in character. Indeed for the time being it 
almost seemed as if they believed themselves to be the characters. 
This too was Valerie's feeling. All of her enjoyment of the acting 
and the art displayed in the representation came to her afterward. 
Now it seemed to her real, and herself a part of it. She fancied her- 
self standing with the mob before Pilate's house, applauding the 



138 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



Roman governor as he refused to be the tool of the Sanhedrim, and 
later watching his wavering with intense anxiety. She shared Mary's 
anguish in the affecting parting scene at Bethany, and at the terribly 
realistic crucifixion, and the still more impressive descent from the 
cross, copied from Rubens' masterpiece ; and she awoke with a start 
as from a trance when the rising of the audience proclaimed that all 
was over. 




THE CRUCIFIXION. 



" I shall have to see the drama more than once," she said to her- 
self, " before I can write a dispassionate review upon it." 

Such a review would not have had half the worth possessed by 
the glowing description of her first impressions which Valerie did 
write on the following Thursday and Friday. " I will begin in this 
way," she planned, " and then add a second part which shall be his- 
torical, analytic, and critical." 



OBER AMMERGAU. 



39 



The Von Webers had left immediately after the representation, 
with nearly all the strangers who had more than filled the little 
village. A greater contrast could scarcely be imagined than the 
appearance of the streets on Wednesday and on Friday. On Satur- 
day they began to fill again in anticipation of the Sunday perform- 
ance, and Valerie, who had so far scarcely left the house, amused 
herself by watching the different costumes worn by the peasant girls 
from various parts of Bavaria and the Tyrol. The dress of the Ziller- 
thal was decidedly the most becoming, and a playful fancy seized her to 
see how she would look in the picturesque white sleeves and black- 
velvet bodice. The village store furnished the requisite materials, 
with silver ornaments and chains ; and with these and a short, brioht 
petticoat Valerie was ingenious enough to arrange herself a very 
pretty costume. She arrayed herself in it, and came clown to the 
kitchen on Sunday morning to try its effect on Mrs. Annas. The 
entire family were delighted. The only criticism made was on the 
arrangement of the hair, and one of the golden-haired daughters 
offered to braid it for her. 

" Now no one would know, gnadige Fraulein, that you were not a 
peasant maiden." 

" So let me be for the remainder of my stay," cried Valerie, — 
" your cousin from the Zillerthal ; and you must let me help 
you as you would allow a cousin to do, for you are all far too busy 
with these new arrivals." 

That day Valerie, instead of experiencing any diminution in her 
impressions of the religious character of the spectacle, felt them sen- 
sibly deepened. She was able now to perceive the ethical meaning 
even of each of the most trivial acts of our Lord. She was particu- 
larly impressed by his words on washing the disciples' feet, and the 
lesson in humble service which they inculcated. " If I therefore, your 
Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye ought to wash one an- 
other's feet." " Figuratively, yes," she thought ; " but I could never 
literally perform such a service; it is too menial, too humiliating." 



140 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



She was a little annoyed in the very midst of this solemn scene 
by the pushing by of a young gentleman, who seemed to feel so little 
respect as to leave the house at such a time, until on glancing up at \ 
his face she saw that it was deadly pale, and betokened intense suf- 
fering. On her return to the house for luncheon during the inter- 
mission she found Mrs. Annas more than usually busy. " The noble 
young gentleman who has the little room which was yours is in great 
pain, and I have had no one to send for a doctor, for the father was j 
acting his part, and the girls and the apprentices were at the theatre, 
and how could I leave the dinner ? " 

" I will go for one now if you will tell me where to find him," 
Valerie exclaimed, delighted that an opportunity had occurred when 
she could be of service. The doctor waited upon the young man 
immediately, and reported in the kitchen that his patient was suffer- 
ing from an abscess on his foot, occasioned by the rusty point of one 
of the long, heavy nails with which the soles of alpine shoes are 
studded. He prescribed a course of poulticing. Poor Mrs. Annas 
groaned aloud. " And who is to carry him the warm poultices up 
and down those steep stairs twenty times a day ? " 

" I am among you as one that serves." It seemed to Valerie that 
Christ repeated the words in her ear. " I will take them to him," 
she offered. " You know I am your Tyrolean cousin, and you have 
promised to let me aid you." 

It was Gilbert Austin, who, always fond of pedestrian excursions, 
had made the trip from Innsbruck on foot, and who by a strange 
coincidence had come to lodge under the same roof as Valerie. 
He had little of the exquisite appearance which he presented at the 
dinner when he had hoped to meet her ; and the suavely nonchalant 
manners of the young consul were hardly recognizable in this savage 
creature with disordered hair who sat nursing his wounded foot, and 
who growled angrily as the door opened, " When in the name of all 
the saints are you going to bring that poultice ? " 



v 



OBER AMMERGAU. 141 

Very gently and patiently Valerie performed the act which she 
had just imagined impossible, allowing tepid water to trickle softly 
on the inflamed surface, and then binding the foot up with deft 
fingers. As he stretched the member comfortably on the great eider- 
down plumeau, and a soothing sensation began to relax his tense 
nerves, Gilbert Austin's attention was transferred from himself to the 
girl who had so skilfully tended him ; but she had left the room with- 
out uttering a syllable. Who was she ? Certainly not a servant, — 
probably a daughter of the house, and he laboriously prepared a 
German phrase with which to ask her name. 

She came just as the poultice had grown cold and uncomfortable, 
for she had given up the afternoon performance of the play. " ' Ich 
dien ' [I serve] is the motto of the Prince of Wales," she thought, 
and when Austin asked what he should call her she replied simply, 
" Diena." 

" You are German, of course ? " he asked in that language. 

" Yes, Tyrolean," she replied quite truthfully. He did not 
imagine that she could speak English, and continued to converse 
with her in his lame German. 

" Have you come far to see the play ? " 

" As far as from Innsbruck." 

" And do you think it was worth the trouble ? " 

" Far more than worth it." 

" And to think that I have taken all the pains without having any 
of the recompense ! " 

" You must stay and see the performance on next Wednesday." 

" I suppose I shall be obliged to do so ; but I can't say that I like 
the prospect, cooped up in this little cell." 

" I think you can have the large front room if you like. It is 
certainly pleasanter than this one. It has three windows, and you 
can see in as many directions, — down the principal street, and up 
toward the burgomaster's, and away toward the Kofel and the other 



142 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



mountains." And Valerie resolved to ask Mrs. Annas to allow her 
to change rooms with the invalid. 

" I suppose I shall have to pay more for all these privileges," 
he replied querulously. 

" I think not ; you know the guests all leave after the per- 
formance." 

" Then I will move to-morrow, though it will be only an aggravation 
to my annoyance to look at the mountains which I cannot climb." 

" You could not ascend them now even if you were well, for \ 
what is rain here has been snow higher up. The mountains are 
covered with snow as in winter. It has a fairy-like look, to see 
snow mingled with all this summer greenery; but it is not pleas- 
ant for climbing, for the snow covers treacherous places and makes 
the rocks slippery. Is the worthy Sir much of an Alpinist ? " 

" I have been doing a good deal of that sort of business of 
late. I went over the St. Gotthard in one day ; that is about 
thirty miles, you know. Then I tramped over the Stelvio. It 
was there my shoe began to pain me ; but as I did not wear it * 
again until I left Innsbruck, I did not think to take it to a cob- 
bler. I don't think it would have been so bad were it not that, 
on finding the shoes thoroughly soaked, I had them dried at 
Partenkirchen ; and the Boots baked them in an oven, and warped 
the sole all out of shape, and sent the nail a quarter of an inch 
further upward." 

Valerie did not find these details as interesting as they seemed 
to the sufferer, and left the room without remark. 

" I say, Diena," he called very loudly and imperiously, for Valerie 
was now half way down the stairs, " when you come again, do 
bring me something to read. It is intolerably dull here with no 
one to talk to." 

Valerie brought him the book containing the text of the Pas- 
sion Play, saying that it was the only English book in the house. 



OBER AMMERGAU. 



1 43 



"I am tired of that," he exclaimed petulantly; "I would even 
rather hear you talk. Describe it to me, please ; you have seen 
it, have you not ? " 

But Valerie explained with much dignity that if she assisted 
the good haus-frau by bringing the poultices, he must not on that 
account imagine that all of her time was at his disposal. 

"Absurd," he muttered to himself; "a peasant girl with the 
airs of a countess ! She is evidently not a servant. I wonder what 
her position is in this family." 

When Valerie next came, he noticed a little tell-tale spot of ink 
on the middle finger of her right hand. " You write," he exclaimed 
triumphantly. 

" A little," she confessed, blushing slightly. 

" And have learned book-keeping ? " 

u Yes." 

Austin was certain now that she kept the accounts of the 
stuffy little store, and made out the tailors' bills and receipts for 
Herr Annas. He was rather pleased by this supposed discovery. 
On his pursuing his inquiries still further, one of the daughters 
of the house informed him that Diena was a cousin from the 
Zillerthal. A poor cousin, he thought, dependent on these well- 
to-do peasants for her support, — and how different she is from 
her relatives ! and then it struck him that this difference was just 
what he had heard existed between the peasants of the Bavarian 
and the Austrian Tyrol, — the former well-to-do and merry, the 
latter poor, sad, and handsome. 

Two weeks, three weeks passed rapidly by, and Valerie and 
Gilbert Austin became very well acquainted. She had the advan- 
tage of him in every way, for Mrs. Annas had given her his 
name and position, and she knew that her father approved of the 
acquaintance. She had, moreover, received a letter from Elsie, 
recounting the incidents of her journey and enlarging on Austin's 



i44 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



interest in the un- 
known Valerie. She 
had even mentioned 
the fact of the judge's 
fear lest his son might 
become interested in 
some peasant maiden, 
and Austin's assur- 
ances that such a 
thing was not possible. 
All this had given 
Valerie ideas. 

They had many 
conversations in re- 
gard to the Passion 
Play, concerning 
which they did not 
quite agree. Austin 
persisted in regarding 
it in the same light 
as any other dramatic 
performance. "Of 
course the scenery 
and the posing is 
effective," he said ; 
"they have the ad- 
vantage of having the 
^^^^s!~l -- J best artists in the 

world work for them. 
'^'-^-~"~ =— ^^ The Descent from 

CALVARY. ^ . . . 

the Cross is copied 
from Rubens' famous picture, the Ascension from that of Raphael, 
the Last Supper from Da Vinci's masterpiece." 




OBER AMMERGAU. 



145 



He admitted that the acting was more uniformly good than he 
had elsewhere seen. " But that is natural," he added, " and could 
not well be otherwise under the circumstances. These peasants 
are all born actors; they have inherited the talent for several 
generations. Moreover, they have been carefully trained from in- 
fancy; they go on the stage as babies in their mothers' arms in the 
great tableaux requiring the presence of the populace. Ten years 
later they make their appearance as the youthful Joseph or Tobias. 
Then, if very talented, they may hope at the next representation to 




THE ASCENSION". 



be one of the apostles. Look at that fellow Saint John. I pre- 
sume he has had just that career ; and they say he is training for 
the role of Christ for the year 1900. He may be able to sus- 
tain it twice or even three times, as Mayer has done ; after that 
he will be too old for it and will appear as Judas, and at his 
' positively last appearance,' he will have grown a patriarchal beard, 
and make up finely for Caiphas or Joseph of Arimathea, or possibly 
Barabbas." 



146 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL 



" All this is very true," Valerie replied, " but I think you miss 
the soul of the thing. You should see these actors attending Mass 
in the early morning on the days of the representation, the little 
church crowded with them, and those unable to eet in kneelino- 

outside in the churchyard, their 
faces lifted in sincere devotion, 
the iron crosses which are used 
to mark the graves here all about 
them, and the snowy mountains 
forming the background. I 
wished when I saw the scene 
the other day that I was an ar- 
tist, it was such an impressive 
picture." 

" If I grant," he persisted,. 
" that the performance of the 
play is undertaken for the best 
of motives, what real good does 
it accomplish ? The old moral- 
ities were plays taken from the 
legends of the saints, or from 
the Old Testament, and always 
inculcated some practical, moral 
lesson ; but a Mystery or a 
play which simply depicts the 
sufferings of the Saviour must 
always, it seems to me, remain in a double sense a mystery, and fail 
to edify the beholder." 

" I cannot agree with you," Valerie replied. " The example of 
Christ is more than many sermons. We learn more from what we 
see done before our eyes than from what we are exhorted to do. 
Christ's words were such as never man spake, but it was his life 




JOHN. 



OBER AMMERGAU. 



H7 



and death which moved the world. It will always have a new viv- 
idness and force for me since seeing it pass before my eyes, and 
I shall be different all my life for having seen it. Do you imagine 
that I would have served you as I have clone during the past few days 
if I had not seen the Christ set 
me an example ? " 

Gilbert Austin started. 

" You looked surprised. What 
motive do you suppose induced 
me to act as your nurse ? Did 
you fancy that I enjoyed such 
menial duties ? 

" I told Frau Annas that I 
would recompense you well for 
your services, and later I have 
thought that perhaps pity, or 
friendship, might have been your 
guiding motive ; that possibly you 
did it because you cared just a 
little for me, Diena." 

" Not at all," Valerie replied 
inexorably. " You are entirely 
wrong. Nursing is repulsive to 
me. I would never undertake it 
as a profession, no matter how 

T . t , , , r BARABBAS. 

poor 1 might be ; and as tor any 

personal charm in yourself, Herr Austin, you were not very attrac- 
tive when I first saw you ; you have not been very amiable since — " 

" Then I am to understand that I have been a sort of object of 
charity, and that you tended me simply from religious duty, precisely 
as you would a beggar in a hospital ? " 

" The Herr Austin states the case exactly." 




148 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

" Well, of all the complimentary young ladies that I have ever had 
the pleasure of meeting, you certainly do cap the climax." 

" Danke schon, Herr Austin." 

The first time that Gilbert was able to attend the play, Valerie 
walked with him, allowing him to steady himself by leaning upon her 
arm. In spite of himself he was much moved by the acting of the 
part of Pilate. " That man had it in his power to save Jesus," said 
Valerie. " Oh, why did he not do it ? " 

" Because he feared the report which the high priests would have 
sent to Caesar. He was not a Christian. He went as far as he 
could without endangering his own life, and that is all that a worldly 
man of the kindest instincts feels called upon to do for his neighbor. 
To have done more would have made him a hero, a Christian." 

" Then you acknowledge that the Christian ideal is higher ? " 

" I do." 

"And have you accepted it for your own?" 

They were standing on the little bridge over the Ammer, for 
they often walked together, Gilbert Austin requiring more of her 
aid than it seemed to Valerie was absolutely necessary. 

" Diena," he said, " I have been thinking seriously of these 
things, and I have decided that I will make the Christ-life my 
ideal if you will help me carry it out." 

" Ah ! that is something, Herr Austin, in which one cannot 
lean too much upon another. To be a Christian one must resolve 
to live his life so, even though unaided and alone." 

"Do not put me to that test, Diena. Stop, wait, I have some- 
thing which I must say to you. I love you, and I want you to 
promise that some day you will be my helper all my life through, 
my own true wife." 

" But, Herr Austin, you do not know my parents, my real posi- 
tion in life, — you scarcely know me as yet." 

" I know myself, Diena, and I know that I love you ; and 



OBER AMMERGAU. 



I 49 



though the differences in our stations be ever so great, I am re- 
solved to marry you." 

Gilbert Austin was so exalted by his sense of his own magna- 
nimity in stooping to a peasant girl, that he did not notice the smile 
that twitched at the corners of her lips. " You are surprised, little 
Diena, that I, a well-born gentleman, am 
willing to lift you to my position ; but I 
am firmly determined to do it. I am sure, 
too, that you are capable of education, and 
that after you have spent a few years in 
school no one would suspect your origin. 
I will educate you. Find some good pri- 
mary school and let me know the expense 
of tuition, and I will settle with the school- 
master. You are a rough diamond, my 
Diena, but I am not to be deceived. I 
tell diamonds even in disguise. All 
need is polish, and that I will give you." 

" The Herr Austin is very kind," Valerie 
replied demurely ; " I will think of the Hen- 
Austin's proposition." 

" And you will be a great fool if you do 
not accept it," Gilbert Austin replied warmly. 
" Think of what I offer you, and tell me 
if there is any possibility of your doing bet- 
ter, if there is any one among your rustic 
lovers, — I suppose you may have had lovers, gilbert austin makes a mag- 

J J NAMIMOUS proposition. 

even over there in the Zillerthal, — who is as 

much of a gentleman as I am, who can make a lady of you, Diena." 

How comical he looked in his rough tourist-garb, with his little 
cap pushed back in his excitement, his absurd airs of lofty condescen- 
sion, and his owl-like stare through his round eye-glasses. 



can 

you 




i5o 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



" His conceit is delicious," thought Valerie, and again she mur- 
mured, " The Herr Austin is very kind, but I cannot deceive the 
Herr Austin. He must see me in my own home, before he binds 
himself; his own people must see me and accept me before I will take 
what he offers." 

Gilbert Austin winced. " As you please, Diena," he replied; "but 
I consider it an engagement all the same." 

" This has gone entirely too far," Valerie said to herself that even- 
ing ; " I must get back to Father and Mother as quickly as possible," 
and she took the early train the next morning, leaving a note for her 
would-be lover. When he opened it she was well upon her way. It 
said only : " Diena thanks the well-born gentleman for his kindness, 
and will think of what he has said. She goes to enter service in Inns- 
bruck, so that he will see her soon again." 

" He will, will he ? " ejaculated Gilbert Austin ; " but she does not 
give the name of her employers. Does the child wish me to go the 
rounds of every house in Innsbruck, asking to see all the Dienstmad- 
chen ?• I suppose I shall come upon her some day scrubbing down 
the front steps of one of the houses." And then lie thought of his 
father. " The old gentleman will make no end of a row. How shall 
I ever tell him ? " 




CHAPTER VIII. 

IN THE TYROL. — THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. — STARTLING NEWS. 

t^OROTHY was heart-sick and weary. She compre- 
hended at once that the count had repented himself 
of his infatuation. Mrs. Irving, who was very indig- 
nant with the recalcitrant lover, could not keep his 

secret, but told Dorothy everything- ■ and the mrl 
-su^'i^^^mi^L .ill i • • i 

understood now that it had been on his side a mere 

matter of money, and that she had not enough to purchase the title. 
There was no regret for the count mingled with her mortification, 
only a burning self-contempt that she had for a moment thought such 
a barter possible. " I deserve the humiliation," she said to herself 
bitterly, " I am beneath all scorn." She longed with a feverish anxiety 
to leave Italy. It seemed to her a land of seductive pleasure, enervat- 
ing to body and soul. She felt the need of stern, wild scenery, and 
of companionship with poor and simple people, to restore her moral 
tone. She said nothing of her reasons for wishing the change even 
to Elsie ; but she acknowledged herself weary of palazzos and semi- 
tropical gardens, and expressed her wish to see snow-capped moun- 
tains once more. Aunt Jane too was anxious for Dorothy to join her 
at Meran, a beautiful resort in the Austrian Tyrol, where she intended 
to remain during the month of September, while Elsie visited her 
friend Valerie at Innsbruck. September was the last month in which 
the Passion Play was to be represented, and Dorothy's thoughts now 



152 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 




reverted to her original aim in coming to Europe. The first days of 
that beautiful month therefore saw them speeding up the valley of the 
Adige with Verona and Italy behind them. The mountains close 
down steeply about the impetuous little river, leaving in places but 
a narrow defile through which the glacier-fed torrent dashes down 

to warm itself in sunny Lombardy. 
Grim fortresses man the rocks, and 
tell of the long, fierce wars between 
Italy and Austria. Up this valley, as 
into a refuge, the broken forces of the 
Austrians had fled after the bloody- 
battles of Solferino and Magenta ; but 
here the wave of victory for the French 
and Italians had been stayed, for it was 
impossible to conquer the Tyrol. 
This western province of Austria is 
a natural-rock fortress, standing like 
a fort to guard the country from the invader. Bavaria menaces it 
on the north, Switzerland on the west, and Italy on the south ; but its 
rampart of mountains, accessible only by narrow passes and defiles, and 
easily defended by a few mountaineers, have rendered it impregnable. 
The people, like the Swiss, are hardy, patriotic, and proud. They 
asked no assistance from the standing army of Austria, but bands 
of Tyrolese marksmen organized themselves under the inn-keeper 
Hofer and formed one of the most effective home-guards that the 
world has known. 

A chill but invigorating blast from the Dolemite region blew 
down the defile as the train made its way northward. They were 
to spend their first night in the Tyrol at Trient or Trent, the 
meeting-place of the famous council of bishops. They entered 
the gloomy old city in the evening, its frowning walls made sterner 
by the lengthening shadows. There was something in the very 



/ROLESE HEADGEAR. 



IN THE TYROL. — THE COUNCIL OE TRENT. — STARTLING NEWS. I 5 3 



gloom which was acceptable to Dorothy, — a feeling of strength and 
solidity, as if here the foundations were sure. She stepped out 
upon the balcony of her room at the Hotel Trento that evening 
and looked across the wide square to the towers of the city walls, 
which rose at intervals, picturesque but grim, silently guarding the 
city, and themselves guarded by the grander encircling mountains. 

" This is just the place for an episcopal council," she said ; " all 
the surroundings give authority and dignity." 

" But you do not see the Bishop's Castle," Elsie replied ; " we 
must visit it to-morrow. It is used as a barrack for Austrian 
soldiers now ; but our host 
says it is shown to visitors, 
and is well worth seeing." 



The next morning, be- 
fore inspecting the castle, 
they wandered about through 
the quaint streets of the 
old city. There were sug- 
gestions of Italy on every 
hand, but blended with some- 
thing different and more vir- 
ile. The facades of the houses 

were frequently adorned with frescoes of religious subjects in the Ital- 
ian style, but you felt that the people of Trent believed more thor- 
oughly in the good saints under whose protection they placed their 
homes than the Italians do. Lanterns were almost invariably sus- 
pended in front of these pictures, and the lanterns were lighted at 
night ; though electric lamps at intervals had removed any necessity for 
them as far as regarded street-illumination. It was strangely incongru- 
ous to see the graceful flower-like bulbs of the modern electric light 
outlined against an old fourteenth-century tower, — an odd mingling 
of the past and present ; but it was not the only incongruity to be 




STREET CLEANING IN TRENT. 



154 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



found in this inconsistent old town. The shop-windows were 
barred and grated like dungeons, the houses were a queer jumble 
of varied architecture, — steep, many-dormered German roofs sur- 
mounting Italian arcades, — and the names on the signs showed 
such polyglot combinations as Giovanni Reichenbach, Giuseppe 
Reinherz, Pasquale Zimmerman, and Otto Karl Morosini. 

There was a noticeable attempt at cleanliness, and a street- 
cleaning department consisting of men with handbarrows and 
great fagot-brooms were doing good work. 

The cathedral was a mixture of the Romanesque and Renais- 
sance styles. The roof of the porch was supported by columns 
resting on the backs of grotesque lions, — a feature which they 
found repeated in the cathedral of Botzen, their next stopping- 
place. Another architectural feature not in the best of taste was 
displayed at the back of the church, where 
columns were so carved as to seem to be 
tied in knots, or braided, as though the stone 
were a soft and bending material like clay 
or putty. They strolled into the church of 
Santa Maria Maggiore, where the Council of 
Trent was held, and were shown a great 
painting representing the sitting of the 
Council, each face a portrait of a cardinal 
or a bishop. There was a cheerful frieze 
of Renaissance carving over the door through 
which they had entered, — a coquettish vir- 
gin and an orchestra of jolly young cherubs, 
— altogether the gayest group which they met in the serious old 
town. 

They climbed the long steep street which led up the hill to the 
castle of Buon Consiglio. There it stood, half palace and wholly 
fortress, once the stately residence of the prince-bishop of Trent. 




FATHER PACIFICO. 



IN THE TYROL. — THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. — STARTLING NEWS. \ 55 

They hesitated for a moment at the entrance. " I hardly like to walk 
straight into a barrack," said Elsie, " and I do not see any custodian." 

As she spoke, a mild-faced, portly priest, evidently a stranger 
like themselves, approached from the city, and joining them, looked 
wistfully up at the great pile. They were all about to turn away, 
when a young officer in the uniform of an Austrian unterjager 
stepped jauntily across the courtyard, and asked politely if they 
would like to see the castle. " Thanks, signor," replied the priest, 
" it is the object of my pilgrimage to Trent." 

" We are also pilgrims," Dorothy added with a smile ; " pilgrims 
in search of the beautiful and all objects of historic interest." 

" Then let me show you the apartments," said the officer, lead- 
ing them up the stone steps into the entrance hall. " There are 
some frescoes here which I believe are considered very fine, — 
at least they were painted by celebrated Italian artists, — but they 
are sadly faded now." 

They climbed a grand stone staircase, and entered a handsome gal- 
lery which looked down upon a court containing a fountain. Every- 
where the two lions — the insignia of the prince-bishop — were 
carved in stone with the cardinal's hat and tassels and the bishop's 
mitre. The gallery was ornamented with frescoes of flimsily clad 
ladies, — strange subjects for a religious house. Biblical and classi- 
cal subjects were mingled, and Delilah and Venus, Judith and Helen, 
disported themselves upon the walls and ceiling. " These are pos- 
sibly by Ramanino," said the unterjager. " Cardinal Madrozzo in- 
vited him to Trent in 1540 to adorn the palace with some new 
frescoes before the sitting of the sreat council." 

" What very gay old fellows those prince-bishops must have 
been," Dorothy remarked irreverently. 

" They enjoyed temporal power over all the country around from 
1027 to 1803," said the young unterjager; "and that they must 
have lived in great luxury, we have evidences in this castle." 



156 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

" They were also frequently men eminent for their learning and 
their piety," said the priest, who had told them that his name was 
Father Pacifico. 

The young unterjager smiled, and led them through a noble suite 
of apartments with richly panelled ceilings and wainscots, orna- 
mented with tarnished gilding and once magnificent with paintings. 
" This great hall was the dining-room," he said. " The reverend 
host broke not his bread alone ; and his wine-cellars were enormous." 

" It was one of the first duties of the prince-bishop to exercise 
hospitality," said Father Pacifico. " His palace was a hospice for 
the traveller, and splendid must have been the sight when the 
Council of Trent were feasted in this apartment. Here might have 
been seen his holiness, Pope Julius III., with all the great cardinals 
of the Church, representatives of the houses of Medici, Mendoza, Pal- 
avicini, Sforza, and the sainted Carlo Borromeo." 

" Was he here ? " asked Dorothy. " He seems to be ubiquitous ; 
we find traces of him everywhere." 

" Truly he was the heart and soul of the Council ; and how could 
he have stayed away when all the prelates of Christendom were 
convened, and they came even from distant Ireland, while the unfor- 
tunate Mary, Queen of Scots, was represented by her uncle, the great 
Cardinal Lorraine ? I was reading but recently the account given by 
one of our historians, and I wrote it down here for reference." 
Father Pacifico took from his breast a small note-book and read, — 
" The Synod of Trent, the older it waxeth the more it will flourish. 
What variety of nations, what choice of bishops of the whole world, 
what splendor of kings and of commonwealths, what marrow of theo- 
logians, what sanctity, what weepings, what fasts, what academical 
flowers, what languages, what subtilties, what labor, what infinite 
reading, what riches of virtues and studies, did fill up that majestical, 
sacred place ! " 

All listened respectfully to the enthusiasm of the gentle priest. 



IN THE T\ -ROL — THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. — STARTLING NEWS. I 5 7 

And they passed from the noble dining-hall into a great round 
chamber in the tower, also richly decorated, which the priest thought 
must have been the library ; then through more apartments, now 
used as dormitories and filled with the rough beds of the soldiers, 
but which were once hung with tapestry and carpeted with velvet ; 
through the pillared cloisters, and across a bridge, which spanned the 
court, into a magnificent room, once faced with marble, and into an- 
other set of cloisters with marble balustrades. The walls were deco- 
rated with the portraits of all the bishops who had reigned here. 
Father Pacifico studied them with deep interest ; but the girls pre- 
ferred to enjoy the wide-spreading view which the windows afforded 
-of the entire surrounding country, with many of the thirty towers 
(Trento Torre) from which the city derives its name, some of which 
are attributed to Theoderic, king of the Ostrogoths. 

There were tears in the good priest's eyes as they left the palace. 
It was plain that he regretted the vanished, glories of the Mother 
Church. " But the old faith is still alive," the young officer said 
proudly. " You should see Trent on the Festival of Saint Vigilius, 
the 26th of June, when the faithful flock to the city." 

" Nay," said Father Pacifico, " you should see the Tyrolese in 
their daily lives, for it is not alone on festival days that religion 
shows itself. I am priest at a little village not far from Meran. I 
would like to have you judge by my people whether faith is per- 
ishing from the world." 

He bowed ceremoniously and took his leave, and the unterjager 
took the girls to the outer court to inspect the great siege cannon. 
They found it difficult to admire the murderous engines. " I dislike 
war," Elsie said frankly. " I do not see how you can be a soldier." 

" It is the only career open to the lesser nobility," the young 
man replied. " I could not be a do-nothing." 

" In America you could have the choice of a hundred honorable 
professions." 



158 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

" Ah, in America ! That is different. We are all looking to 
America to work out our problems for us. If America succeeds for 
another century, Europe will be full of republics." 

" I did not think of that," Dorothy said, as they walked down the 
hill together. " In America we are not only working out our own 
salvation, but we are an example to the world. Our responsibility is 
all the greater." 

Elsie's mind was still upon the Council of Trent. " When did 
it take place ? " she asked. 

" I don't know the exact date. Fifteen hundred and something, I 
believe. We will look it up whenever we have access to a library." 

This did not happen until they reached Meran. Here the girls 
were surprised to find that the Council, whose first session took place 
Dec. 13, 1545, was a very lengthy one, convening at intervals and 
covering a period of eighteen years, its last meeting being upon Dec. 

" It must have had some weighty question to settle," said Aunt 
Jane, " to take all that time to finish it up.' 

" The question is not finished yet," Dorothy replied, looking up 
from the book which she had been consulting. " It was convened for 
the purpose of suppressing Protestantism, and it only disseminated 
the new faith by making it a subject of discussion in every land. It 
seems that when Pope Leo X. excommunicated Luther, the reformer 
appealed from the judgment of the Pope to that of a general ecume- 
nical council. My historian — a Catholic one — says that this appeal 
was merely a device for controversy; but the Pope Paul III. (Farnese) 
did not so consider it, and with the Emperor Charles V. he called a 
council-general of Christendom to define the true faith. The Emperor 
insisted that the Council should not be held in Italy, as there it would 
be considered to be under the direct power of the Pope. All the 
Protestant clergy were invited to attend, and were assured of safe 
conduct. Some deputies from Protestant churches responded, but on 



IN THE TYROL. — THE COUNCIL OE TRENT. — STARTLING NEWS. l6l 

being refused equal voice in the meetings, retired, saying that they 
would not remain merely to hear themselves condemned. Pius IV. 
(Medici), pope during the later sessions of the Council, made two efforts 
to have Queen Elizabeth recognize the Council by sending a represen- 
tative. But Elizabeth replied to the effect that England had done 
with the Pope ; and that it was therefore useless, and might be mis- 
chievous, to confer with his emissaries. The Romish Church in Eng- 
land was, however, in some sort represented by Reginald Pole, whom 
Elizabeth had deposed from the bishopric of Worcester. The fidelity 
of Alary, Queen of Scots, was praised by the Council, who replied to 
her by letter, assuring her that " among the princes and rulers who in 
these evil times have been bold in the cause of the Church of God, 
assuredly the illustrious name of Mary, Queen of Scotland, will be 
commended to the undying remembrance of mankind." 

Dorothy seemed to find relief from her self-contempt in hard study. 
Theological controversy is not usually the most attractive reading to 
young people ; but she plunged into it with keen zest, and found a real 
pleasure in making herself absolute mistress of the subject. She 
waded patiently through many dry books at the library, made volu- 
minous notes, and afterward talked over what she had read with Elsie 
and Aunt Jane. 

" I think you must admire Luther's attitude," she said. " Although 
the Council was called in response to his request, he was far from 
recognizing its authority, but wrote to Melancthon : ' We must admit 
that our doctrine is true apart from the Council, that the angels in 
heaven can change no part of it, and that the angels who should 
attempt to do so ought to be excommunicated; much more then is 
it inadmissible that the Emperor, the bishops, or the Pope should 
judge it.' " 

" And did they spend all those eighteen years simply in discussing 
and condemning Protestantism ? " Elsie asked. 

" No, the entire Roman Catholic creed seems to have been taken 



1 62 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

up point by point. In the first place they authorized the Vulgate 
Bible, and pronounced the traditions of the Church equal in authority 
with sacred scripture. Later the doctrine of justification by faith 
as held by Luther was condemned as a heresy. Next the sacraments 
were brought up for discussion, and the doctrine of transubstantiation 
established as a test of orthodoxy, no Protestant being willing to 
admit it. The Sacred Orders were declared of divine appointment, 
and the way paved for Ultramontanism. The Duke of Bavaria at 
this juncture demanded that marriage should be permitted to the 
clergy, but this was promptly refused. Many other points were dis- 
cussed, and it is plain that many of the disputants were truly Christian 
men who felt that Christianity was in danger. This is especially to 
be remarked in the course taken by Cardinal Borromeo ; it is evident, 
also, in the dispute over Predestination as held by Calvin, which the 
Council finally pronounced an error." 

" It only proves," said Elsie, " that very good men may hold dia- 
metrically opposed opinions." 

" And yet it certainly does not follow that our opinions are of no 
consequence." 

" No, dear ; but in Cardinal Borromeo's case, at least, his life was 
of far greater worth." 

That afternoon a different current was given to their thoughts by 
the arrival of two letters from John Hartley. To his sister he wrote 
at length of his life at the mines, but his note to Dorothy was simply 
a business one and ran as follows : — 

Chain Lightning Mine, Colorado, August 15. 
DEAR MlSS DOROTHY, — I am happy to report a great advance in the value 
of your stock. The past months have witnessed an unprecedented boom. A 
new vein was struck in the early summer, and the value of shares went up from 
ten to fifty dollars. Your original investment of ten thousand dollars now repre- 
sents fifty thousand. Shall I sell? I counsel this, — not because I anticipate 
any immediate decline in market values (indeed, popular enthusiasm is so great 



IN THE TYROL. — THE COUNCIL OE TRENT. — STARTLING NEWS. 1 63 

that the stock is likely to go as high as seventy-five dollars a share), — but be- 
cause I am confident, from the samples of ore in the new vein and the amount of 
land owned by our company, that this is all the stock is really worth. I had in- 
vested one thousand dollars, and have realized ten thousand. There is a lively 
demand for the stock, and the company will probably issue new shares. This in- 
flation will do no harm for the present, but the mine cannot furnish the dividends 
which it has declared in the past to an unlimited number of stockholders. 

On receipt of this, will you kindly advise me by cable of your wishes in the 
matter? I trust that your European tour is offering you even grander opportu- 
nities than you anticipated. 

Yours to command, John Hartley. 

Dorothy read the letter aloud to Elsie, who exclaimed, " Why, 
Dorothy, you are rich ! Fifty thousand dollars ! " 

" Yes, and the stock is likely to go higher ; I may be worth seventy- 
five thousand now." 

" Shall you sell ? " 

" I don't think I shall. Your brother seems so sure that it is likely 
to increase in value. I don't quite see why he advises me to withdraw 
my money." 

" Let me see. Because — ' this is all it is really worth.' That is 
so like John. He could never bear to sell anything at fictitious values." 

" I have n't so nice a conscience. I shall cable him to let it go as 
high as it will, and only sell my shares when they begin to go down. 
Whatever possessed him to take out his own investment ? There cer- 
tainly is such a thing as being righteous overmuch." 

" John seems to have lost interest in mining," said Elsie, as she 
glanced through her brother's letter ; " or rather, to be greatly inter- 
ested in another scheme, — that of forming a company for furnishing 
employment to emigrants. This is what he says : ' As paymaster 
for the mine I have been thrown a great deal with the men. They 
are all foreigners who have come to this new world to seek their for- 
tunes, and after searching in vain for employment throughout the 
cities of the east have drifted out to the west, and are so pitiably glad 



j6^ THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

to find any work. Every day the great ocean steamers bring in hun- 
dreds of steerage passengers, — the hard-working and honest, and the 
idle and improvident ; but all ignorant and helpless, — human wreckage 
cast upon our shores for us to care for. There is room for them in 
the west, there is labor and land waiting for them here if they knew 
how to reach it ; but they know nothing, and they huddle into the 
already teeming tenement-quarter of New York, and patiently beg and 
die, or turn into ruffians and criminals. My plan is to organize an 
intelligence and forwarding agency, which shall meet these emigrants 
when they land and send them to just the spot for which they are 
fitted and which needs them. Such a company will want money to 
begin operations ; but it ought to be more than self-supporting within 
a few years, and would accomplish great good. I hope that I will be 
able to report in my next letter that it is in active operation.' " 

" How good he is ! " Dorothy exclaimed. " When I do decide to 
sell my mining shares I will invest something in his scheme. You 've 
a brother to be proud of, Elsie. Contrast his aims with those of Count 
Farniente. He thought it would be a good plan for Count Borromeo 
to sweep that entire fishing-village from its island in order to enlarge 
his own pleasure-grounds, and when I asked what would become of 
the fishermen, said they might go to America — for John to take care 
of, I presume. I cannot comprehend how any man can be willing to 
count for nothing, — for less than nothing, a real minus quantity in 
the world's work." 

It was the first time that she had spoken of the count in a long 
time. Elsie looked at her friend a little incredulously. 

"You evidently think you are in earnest," she said to herself; "but 
all the same, if the count had known of your wealth and had proposed, 
I don't believe you would have drawn the contrast so greatly in favor 
of John." More than ever she wished Dorothy to care for John, for 
in a postscript to his letter, which she had not read to Dorothy, he had 
said: " I am very glad that her interests have prospered in my hands. 



IN THE TYROL. — THE COUNCIL OE TRENT — STARTLING NEWS. 165 

It will be one of the delights of my life if this fortune opens the way 
for her to some beautiful realization of her ideals. Keep my secret, 
and let me know if ever a time arrives when I can serve her in 
any way." 

If the count did not hear of Dorothy's fortune, Elsie was sure that 
he would never cross their path again, and then perhaps in time Doro- 
thy might deign to stoop to John. But she wished for him no such 
grudging acceptance, regretted perhaps in after days as Dorothy 
thought of that other lot which never quite came within the possi- 
bilities. Her sisterly heart was very proud as well as loyal ; she 
wished for John nothing short of unqualified preference, and of this 
she was not absolutely sure. 




CHAPTER IX. 

MERAN AND ITS CASTLES. 

HE Tyrol is sown thick with castles. They bristle 
on the mountains, commanding every pass ; and 
their ruins " come in " picturesquely wherever in 
the landscape an artist could desire them. While 
wandering over the castle of the prince-bishops 
of Trent, Dorothy had wondered whether that 
owned by the count resembled it in any way. If so, the posses- 
sion of such a domain was surely wealth and consequence enough 
for one man. But as they continued their journey to Meran, and 
she saw ruins in every degree of dilapidation, she realized that one 
might be the owner of a ruined castle and yet be no richer than 
an evicted Irish peasant whose cabin has been unroofed above 
him. Before reaching Meran they had stopped at Botzen, — one of 
the most important and picturesque cities of the Tyrol, charmingly 
situated at the juncture of the Talfer and Eisak rivers, which in 
turn empty a little farther south into the Adige. Mountains rise 
steeply all around, crowding the city into the valley ; and down 
the sides of the mountains rush a score of brooks, swelling into 
torrents after every rainfall, and forming countless cascades and 
lakelets. In spite of the prevalence of water, Botzen is noted for 
its scorching heat. The air seems to simmer as in a chafing dish. 
The whirlwinds which dash down from the gorges whisk the dust — 



MERAN AND ITS CASTLES. 



I6 7 



powdered porphyry — into the eyes of pedestrians, and the sun 
glares with such fierceness that one is fain to take refuge under 
the shaded arcades of the Laubengasse. This long street is ex- 
tremely curious ; its stone colonnades 
would cause it to resemble a cloister 
were it not that the great variety and 
quantity of merchandise displayed give 
one the impression of a country fair, 
— a fair held in the court of a con- 
vent, if such a thin or were conceivable. 
One side of the street is occupied by 
German and the other by Italian shop- 
keepers. 

Aunt Jane had come from Meran 
to meet the girls. She was greatly 
improved by her stay in the Tyrol, 
and had exchanged the close and 
stuffy crape veil for a broad-brimmed 
hat. She looked at everything with 
great interest, but with almost in- 
variable disapproval. 

There was very little that was for- 
eign which met with her approbation. 
The Gothic church with its roof and 
spire covered with green porcelain 
tiles, the iridescent vitreous glaze 
shining under the strong light like the 
scales of a dragon, was an altogether heathenish object in her eyes, — 
though to the girls this green tiling — a peculiarity of the Tyrol — 
seemed charming. The interior of the church was set with pews 
in the Protestant fashion, each pew bearing a brass plate with the 
name and coat-of-arms of its occupant. " The good people of Botzen 




AUNT JANE. 



i68 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



appear to be all nobles," Elsie said in a whisper, as she read the 

names of Herzog this and Baron that. 

" The noblesse of the Tyrol are as proud, I have heard, as they 

are poor," Dorothy re- 
plied. " Do you see that 
sad, weary-looking woman 
kneeling behind that pil- 
lar ? She is probably a 
descendant of a line of 
belted knights, who now 
labors with her hands for 
her daily bread. And she 
has doubtless plenty of 
companions in like cir- 
cumstances. Where have 
you ever seen so many 
ruined castles ? Every 
height is crowned with 
one ; and I mean to ex- 
plore them all before I 
leave this vicinity." 

It is, said that every 
tourist on arriving at 
Botzen makes up his 
mind to li do " all the 
places of interest, but 
goes away having accom- 
plished nothing but the 
maidens were no exception, 
walked out toward the ruins 




IN THE CHURCH AT BOTZEN. 



Calvarienberg ; and our venturesome 

The afternoon of their arrival they 

Of the castle Hoch Eppan, far enough to obtain a magnificent view 

of the Dolomites, — sharply splintered mountains whose snow- 



ME RAN AND ITS CASTLES. 1 69 

crowned summits have in turn attracted and repelled the most hardy- 
Alpinists. But the next morning the heat oppressed them so much 
that they decided to substitute the easy ascent of the Calvarienberg 
for the more ambitious excursion which they had planned to the 
old chateau of Sigmundskron. 

The Calvarienberg, like Varallo, is one of the many pilgrimage 
mountains so much in favor in Catholic countries. Dorothy made 
the excursion simply for the sake of the fine view which she was 
assured she would find at the summit. The two girls set out, 
alpenstocks in hand, but paused a few moments on the long wooden 
bridge over the Eisak to enjoy the beautiful landscape. 

The effigies in the little chapels had not the artistic merit of 
those at Varallo to recommend them, and the girls hurried by them 
and passed around the little church which crowned the summit of 
the mountain to the terrace from which the famous view was to 
be obtained. 

An ingenious device for giving the tourist the names of the 
points of interest in the surrounding landscape was arranged on the 
terrace balustrade. From a converging point on the coping, at 
which the spectator was asked to place his eye, lines were drawn 
toward the heights, and to nine castles which were visible on the 
horizon, the name of each being traced on the line. Conspicuous 
among the many ruins was that of Schloss Eppan, whose owners 
in the eleventh century were rivals of the counts of Tirol, who 
exercised sway over thirty-six tributary castles, and carried on for 
a long time a feud with the prince-bishops of Trent, by whom 
they were finally crushed. 

" Castles are really as common here as pig-sties," Dorothy 
remarked. 

" I do not think I have seen as many good comfortable sties 
in this region," Elsie added. " I do not see the name of Adlers- 
ruhe here, but somewhere over there beyond Meran is the castle 



170 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



which the count wished to give — or was it to sell ? — you. I shall 
be curious to see it. They say that Meran is a greater centre 
for castles than Botzen ; and as the heat 
here is so enervating, I propose that we 
postpone our explorations of ruins until we 
reach the next stage in our journey." 

To Meran they came. The first week 
Dorothy devoted to reading in the town 
library, informing herself not only on the 
Council of Trent, but also on the history 
of the Tyrol and on the German and Aus- 
trian Mystery Plays. Elsie brought a neg- 
lected correspondence up to date, and wrote 
to Mrs. Irving of their safe arrival under 
Aunt Jane's wing, and of their various 
happenings en route. She mentioned the 
good fortune that had come to Dorothy ; for 
she knew that Mrs. Irving would be keenly 
interested in this item of intelligence, and 
could imagine the vexation which that well- 
intentioned woman would experience at the 
thought that the news had come too late 
to have its influence on the little romance 
which had been enacted under her roof. 
But books and letters could not hold the 
girls long indoors, and they soon began to 
explore the fascinating region. 

Meran, the ancient capital of the Tyrol, 
is famous as the ancestral residence of the 
counts of Tirol, from whom the province obtained its name. It is 
greatly frequented during the winter by consumptives on account of 
the mildness of its climate, and at other seasons by tourists of every 




OFF FOR A WALK. 



ME RAX AND ITS CASTLES. 171 

description. Aunt Jane had engaged pleasant rooms at a pension 
on the Gisele promenade, which skirted the dike constructed along 
the impetuous Passer, which now danced harmlessly enough at the 
bottom of the gorge. 

Life here was very restful. The girls took long walks in the fore- 
noons, and never had they known a spot where there were so many 
tempting objective points for excursions. Everywhere along the road- 
side were placed religious images or pictures ; nailed against the trees, 
sheltered in niches in the cliffs, or under little shrines, these "guide- 
posts to heaven " were closely set ; and it was rare indeed when some 
peasant was not seen kneeling before them, the smoke from his painted 
porcelain pipe rising toward Heaven like incense from a censer. In 
the town there was a tennis club which the girls joined, and as the 
temperature of Meran was much cooler than that of Botzen, active 
exercise was a positive delight. 

Of the thirty castles to be found in the environs they first visited 
that of Zenoberg, with its chapel noted for its fine carvings ; then 
Schbnna, which still retains its gates and draw-bridge armory and 
dungeons, and is a fine specimen of a mediaeval castle belonging to the 
Duke of Meran. 

" This is certainly the most beautiful spot in all this lovely country," 
said Elsie, looking out at the vine-clad hills with their shadowy chest- 
nuts and dusky mulberries, while the grand panorama of the mountains 
rose in the background. 

"Just over there," said Dorothy, pointing to the east, "is the 
Ortler group, the grandest mountains of the Tyrolean Alps. If we 
had come by the Stelvio Pass we would have journeyed for hours in 
sight of them. I think we must make an excursion to the Ortler 
Spitz, the highest peak in the group, before we leave this region. It 
has been climbed by women, and I am sure we can do it." 

" We can't quite make the ascent alone," said Elsie, " but we will 
keep our eyes open for any party that we can join." 



I7 2 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

Another day they scaled the ramparts of the Fragsburg, the most 
loftily situated of all the Meran castles, still perfect and inhabited, 
while below it nestled the ruins of Katzenstein and Neuberg; but the 
most interesting of all their excursions they both agreed was to the 
Schloss Tirol. 

It was a walk of six good English miles, during which they 
mounted over a thousand feet ; but the day was perfect, and they were 
both in excellent spirits. After passing the little village of Tirol, the 
highway skirted a cliff, a rocky wall on their right and a precipice 
upon their left. Suddenly the black mouth of a tunnel confronted 
them. A way had been constructed to the castle straight through an 
abutment of the mountain. Excavated centuries ago, it could easily 
have been held in those primitive times by a few retainers, and must 
have been a strong defence. On issuing from the tunnel, the castle 
appeared before them, perched on a high cliff of conglomerate, and 
overlooking the valley, which was indistinct with mist. It was easy to 
imagine it a lake, and Elsie was sure that it must once have been one, 
for the geologic conformation of the strata on which the castle stood 
showed water-rounded stones imbedded in drift and clay. They 
crossed a bridge, entered the courtyard of the castle, and then climbed 
the staircase to the rittersaal, or great reception hall, where the custo- 
dian of the castle was already showing a party the magnificent view 
from the beautifully carved windows. Elsie paused to admire the 
finely cut dragon which formed the capital to the pillar dividing one 
of the windows into two narrow arches ; but Dorothy's gaze overlooked 
the carving, and swept outward down the beautiful valley of the Adige, 
following the windings of the river on its way to Italy. 

The Baroness Tautphoeus was right when she made her heroine 
say : " If you were not enchanted with that view just as you found it, 
we must never travel nor even look at prints together." 

" I wish we could live here for a time," said Dorothy ; " I do not 
think any one could be mean or little in such surroundings. I wonder 
whether one could purchase permission to reside in the castle." 



MERAN AND ITS CASTLES. 



+ 73 



" I fancy it would be impossible. The castle belongs to the Crown. 
It is preserved as a historical monument, and the emperor would hardly 
rent it. Come, the guide is taking the others into the chapel ; we 
shall miss some part of the building." 

Dorothy turned away reluctantly. The carvings about the ancient 
portal were most fanciful and grotesque ; mythological beasts were 
intermingled with representations of scripture characters and a tangle 
of gothic leafage. The chapel itself was smaller than the great ritter- 
saal, being intended for the private use of the lords of the castle. 
There was some finely carved wood-work, and they were shown a can- 
opied stall, or chair, like a bishop's sedilla, the seat of Margaret Maul- 
tasch (or pocket-mouth), the last Countess of Tirol. 

" When was this castle built ? " Elsie asked of Dorothy, who car- 
ried the guide-book. 

" It is claimed that it was begun in the fourth century, but the 
building as we see it was principally constructed in the tenth. It 
seems that it belonged to the counts of Tirol until the thirteenth cen- 
tury, when this Margaret of whom the guide has just spoken, being the 
last descendant of that line, willed her inheritance to the house of 
Hapsburg, and from that time Tyrol ceased to be an independent 
State, but was merged among the possessions of Austria. The Tyro- 
lese seem to have agreed to the change, and to have been as loyal to 
the emperor as they were to their former masters, the counts of Tirol." 

The custodian showed them into the visitors' room, — a fine 
apartment on the next floor, fitted up as a drawing-room and hung 
with large portraits of the present emperor, his uncle, and grand- 
father. The emperor was represented as a handsome youth in a 
sky-blue coat well covered with medals. The custodian, a tall and 
(for his position) a rather silent man, pointed out the portrait with 
evident admiration. He was so dignified, and in appearance so 
much above his situation, that the girls hesitated whether to fee 
him ; but seeing that the other tourists pressed a coin into his 
hand on parting, they followed the example. 



174 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

As they descended the staircase, they looked once more into the 
rittersaal. " It must have been fine here, eh ? " said the custodian, 
" when the countess received a hundred knights and all her vas- 
sals. They say, too, that on occasion she led them to battle on 
horseback, dressed all in armor." 

Dorothy admitted that such a sight would have been worth 
seeing; and then, emboldened, expressed her desire to live for a 
time in the castle. 

"In this one?" replied the custodian. "Oh, no! it would not 
be permitted ; but there is a castle on the way to the Ortler Spitz, 
not very far from Schlanders. My cousin is the custodian. It has 
been for sale for many years, and is to let also. You could hire 
that for a song. Mr. Obermeyer in Meran is the agent; or if you 
did not wish to hire it, you could board there if you like. My 
cousin keeps an inn for the entertainment of Alpinists who climb 
the Ortler. It is a beautiful country, but lonely, — lonely as the 
ark of Noah after the Deluge." 

" Your description interests me," said Dorothy. " I am not 
afraid of loneliness. What, is the name of this castle?" 

"Schloss Adlersruhe ; it belongs to an Italian count who never 
comes here. No wonder he is anxious to sell it; the people do not 
love him." 

Dorothy did not wait to hear more, but turned quickly away. 

" Shall you take up your abode at Adlersruhe ? " Elsie asked, as 
they descended the mountain. 

" Most certainly not," Dorothy replied with decision. 

" But you need not be indebted to the count for hospitality ; you 
have only to see this Mr. Obermeyer and make a business arrange- 
ment. John said he would send you another dividend check soon. 
From the description of its surrounding, I should think it is just 
the place you would like." 

" It seems that surroundings after all have little influence upon 



MERAN AND ITS CASTLES 



75 



character. Adlersruhe has not ennobled the count nor Schloss 
Tirol the Lady Margaret. Carlyle paints her as not altogether an 
admirable character," Dorothy answered. " I think his expression 
is that she was remarkable alike for her ugliness, her courage, her 
intelligence, and her wickedness ; but I like that custodian, and I 
can't help feeling that he is not exactly a common peasant." 

" Some one told me," Elsie replied, " that he was a descendant 
of Hofer, and that the emperor gave the family the care of this 
castle as one of the marks — and a very trifling one it seems to 
me — of the esteem in which he held the services of their brave 
ancestor.' 

"That explains it,' said Dorothy; "the man is of noble descent, 
not because the emperor granted Hofer a patent of nobility after 
his great victories, but because Hofer was noble, a patriot and a 
hero before those marks of royal favor were granted. Our next 
excursion must be to the site of the old inn on the Passer, which 
this remarkable man kept before his country's need called out his 
genius and made him famous." 

Elsie was a little disappointed that Dorothy showed so little 
curiosity in regard to Adlersruhe, but she consoled herself with 
the hope that they might see it when they made their ascension 
of the Ortler Spitz. She did not greatly share Dorothy's taste 
for historical research ; but their walk to Hofer's inn, and later a 
visit to Defregger's Cycle in the museum of Innsbruck, interested 
her greatly in the story of the hero of Tyrol. And any mention, 
however brief, of this region would be incomplete without a glance 
at his life. 

Andreas Hofer was born in the valley of the Passer, not far from 
Meran, in 1765. Here he lived quietly, pursuing the vocation of 
an inn-keeper, until by the treaty of Pressburg the Tyrol was ceded 
to Bavaria, Napoleon's ally. The Tyrolese had no mind to be 
disposed of without any consultation of their own wishes. All over 



Ij6 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

the country the rifle clubs held meetings and organized into militia, 
bent on liberating themselves from foreign rule and restoring their 
country to Austria. The inn of Andreas Hofer became the rendez- 
vous for these reunions. He was elected their leader, and on the 
1 2th of April, 1809, at the head of fifteen thousand peasants, he 
assaulted Innsbruck and routed the combined forces of the French 
and the Bavarians. The Emperor of Austria immediately sent 
General Chasteler to take command of the Tyrolese troops. Hofer 
surrendered his position obediently; and the general, who had the 
reputation of " always coming too late and leaving too soon, in a 
few days succeeded in losing all that the peasants had wop." 

The Tyrolese clamored for their own leader, and Hofer again 
came forward and took Innsbruck for the second time. After the 
victory the valiant home-guard retired to their mountains and valleys 
and Hofer to his inn, well content, until in a convention after the 
defeat of Wagram Austria relinquished the Tyrol. The Tyrolese 
could not believe the news until they saw the Austrian army evacu- 
ate Innsbruck and Napoleon's marshal Lefevbre take possession of 
the city with fifty thousand men. Then Hofer, in hiding in the 
mountains, issued orders signed, " Andreas Hofer, from where I am ; " 
and despatches came to him addressed simply, " To Andreas Hofer, 
wherever he is," forwarded with unerring promptitude and secrecy. 
In this third campaign the Tyrolese marksmen were organized most 
admirably. Bonfires blazing on the mountains were the signals at 
night. Sawdust thrown into the rivers carried the news southward 
of the advance of the enemy. Hofer had two able aides-de-camp, 
— Speckbacher his lieutenant and the red-bearded Capuchin monk 
Haspinger, who left his convent to confess and communicate the 
insurgent peasants and to lead them forward, crucifix in hand. Four 
thousand Saxon troops with the vanguard of Lefevbre's corps ad- 
vanced southward as far as the gorge of Stilfes, when at a sudden 
signal the heights were manned by Tyrolese, and as in the death 



MERAX AND ITS CASTLES. 



I?! 



of Roland, " rocks, trunks of trees previously loosened and held 
together by ropes, were set free. An avalanche of blocks of por- 
phyry, enormous pines, stones, and earth falls on the Saxons and 
crushes them." 

The rout was complete. The Tyrolese followed it up, and on 
August 15 Hofer made his third entry into Innsbruck. The towns- 
people were wild with enthusiasm and gratitude. They elected him 
dictator of Tyrol and lodged him in the palace. The emperor 
sent him a decoration and a patent of nobility. His every act during 
his brief reign was true to his religious and patriotic character. 
No other dictator ever lived so abstemiously or cost the government 
less for his personal expenses. 

But it was the old story. Austria was powerless to keep the 
gift which the sons of Tyrol had presented to her. 

Napoleon had pursued the Austrian army down the Danube 
to Vienna. After ten hours of bombardment, the city capitulated ; 
and occupying the Austrian emperor's palace, Napoleon, on the 
14th of October, dictated the Treaty of Vienna. The conditions of 
peace demanded the annexation of the Tyrol to Bavaria, with the 
exception of a large slice ceded to Italy. 

Hofer refused to believe that the order to lay down his arms 
really came from his emperor. He retreated into the mountains, 
and endeavored to rally his army ; but the Tyrolese were pro- 
foundly discouraged, and for the first time failed to respond to 
him. A reward was offered for his apprehension, and a traitor 
guided a detachment of French and Italian soldiers to his retreat. 
He was surprised, taken prisoner, and conveyed to Mantua, where 
he was tried by court-martial and condemned to be shot. It is 
one of the many blots on Napoleon's character that he allowed 
this sentence to be carried into effect. Hofer met his death 
bravely, with unbandaged eyes, himself giving the signal to fire. 

On the downfall of Napoleon, the congress of the allies meeting 



178 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

in Vienna restored the Tyrol with various Italian provinces to which 
she had no right to Austria ; and with the exception of this brief 
period, the Tyrolese have been under the power of no foreign nation, 
but have rendered loyal and cheerful fealty to their own counts and 
to the Austrian kaiser, many of the Tyrolese serving in the Austrian 
army. 

In the general rejoicing the dead patriot and hero was not 
forgotten. Deputations of Tyrolean marksmen bore the remains of 
Andreas Hofer from Italy, and in 1823 he made his fourth and last 
triumphal entry into Innsbruck. Seldom has such a funeral been 
seen. They laid him in the church of the Franciscans, close beside 
the beautiful sarcophagus of the Emperor Maximilian, — in a costly 
tomb ornamented with his statue cut from the marble of the Tyrol 
by her best sculptors, — and with the tombs of his friends Speck- 
bacher and Haspinger on either hand. 

In the museum of Innsbruck every obtainable souvenir of Hofer 
is preserved with the most sacred care. His sculptured bust, por- 
trait, autographs, his sabre, the golden chain and medal given him 
by the emperor, trophies taken by him from the enemy, French, 
Bavarian, and Italian standards and arms, the pistol of Speckbacher 
and the crucifix of Haspinger are all there, while the grand his- 
torical paintings of Defregger tell the story from the little inn of 
Meran to the grave at Mantua, — "one crowded year of glorious life." 




CHAPTER X. 

ADLERSRUHE AND THE ORTLER SPITZ. 

;OROTHY was still a problem to Elsie and to her- 
self. A change had taken place in the girl, but 
it was rather a change in her aims than in her 
character. Ambition was still the motive power 
of all her actions, — the consuming fire in her heart 
which stimulated her talent as the furnace fires 
generate steam. She no longer desired rank, but her ambition 
had not been quenched ; the fires glowed and the steam expanded 
still, though the engine had been reversed. It was her ambition 
now to attain literary eminence, and her least action had this for 
its end. She wrote and studied, read, observed, made notes, and 
thought, with feverish intensity. 

"John Hartley expects me to make something grand of my life," 
she said to herself. " I can write. I know it is in me ; and some 
day he shall see that the world will acknowledge me queen by 
right of my own talents. It would have been no triumph to have 
become a countess. He would only have despised me for it. I 
want him to admire me ; and he shall admire me as I do him. He 
is grand and good and self-sacrificing. I am not self-sacrificing; 
I am very selfish : but I feel that I am gifted, and some day he 
shall acknowledge it and love me for it." 



!8o THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

Poor Dorothy ! If she had only known that John Hartley had 
long ago recognized her talent, and loved her not for it but in 
spite of it. He believed too, with a great, loving faith, that Dorothy 
would some day show herself greater than her ambition in some 
act of noble magnanimity. His ideals for her were higher than 
any which she had set for herself. 

Dorothy worked on, losing much of the benefit which might 
have come to her health by her stay in the Tyrol through her 
intense application to study. She had taken up once more her 
essay on the Passion Play. 

" It is poor stuff," she said to Elsie ; " but I can improve it after 
I have seen the play, and the month is waning. I ought to go to 
Ober Ammergau at once." 

" I have just received a letter from Valerie," said Elsie. " She 
is at Ober Ammergau now, but returns to Innsbruck soon, and 
invites me to visit her there on the 2 2d. If you leave Meran with 
me next week, you will be in Ober Ammergau for the last week 
of the Passion Play, and we shall still have another week for this 
lovely region." 

" I have seen everything that I wish in the vicinity of Meran," 
Dorothy replied. 

" Except the Ortler Mountains." 

" True, but we cannot make their ascent alone." 

The long talked-of excursion was almost given up, when there 
arrived at their pension a party of three Alpinists on their way to 
this very mountain. 

Elsie reported the news in high glee. " And who do you think 
is in the party ? " she asked excitedly. 

" I really cannot imagine." 

" The amateur photographer whom we met on Lake Lucerne." 

" I do not see that this helps us at all. We know nothing about 
him, and can't invite him to invite us to join the party." 



ADLERSRUHE AND THE ORTLER SPITZ. 



:8i 



" Of course not ; but he has brought his wife with him, and we 
do happen to know her, for she is Caroline Ponsonby ! His name 
is Bruce, and he was on his way to be married when we met him. 
Mrs. Caroline Ponsonby Bruce seemed much pleased to meet me, 
and urges us to make the ascent with them." 

The excursion was accordingly agreed upon, the itinerary and 
all details being left to Mr. Bruce. 

The first day all took the public stellwagen, or stage, to Schlan- 
ders, where riding-horses were engaged to take them on the morrow 
to a point from which the ascension could be made on horseback or 
on foot. 

Aunt Jane accompanied them during 
the first stage. They had seen the prin- 
cipal cities of the Tyrol, but had not until 
now witnessed its wild mountain-passes, 
its forests, its scattered farm-houses and 
Senn-huts. 

The men whom they met all wore the 
Tyrolese mountaineer costume, and many 
of them carried rifles. 

" How picturesque that man looks," 
Dorothy remarked, pointing out a wood- 
cutter, " with his long pipe, his brigand hat 
with its black cock-feathers, the scarlet vest 
over the white shirt, and the gray jacket 
trimmed with green hanging carelessly on 
one shoulder. But why are not either the 
breeches or the gray stockings a little longer ? I should think bare 
knees an uncomfortable fashion for this cold climate." 

" And yet it is the fashion of the chill Highlands of Scotland," 
Mr. Bruce replied. " The Tyrolese are a hardy race, and do not 
feel the cold as we do. I know that you will be interested in the 




A TYROLESE MOUNTAINEER. 



182 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



people of the village of Adlersruhe. I call it my village, for few- 
tourists have discovered it, though it is one of the best points of 
approach to the Ortler. These villagers are even more intelligent 
and possess more of the Christian virtues than others of the same 
grade. There are three conditions which may have conduced to 
this, — first, their remoteness from the world with its modern vices ; 
second, the presence among them of an unusually devoted and 
enlightened parish priest ; and third, the fact 
that there is in the community no higher or 
aristocratic class. Their seigneur deserted 
his castle years ago to settle in Italy ; and 
since that time the peasants have called no 
man lord, but have grown in independence 
and manliness of spirit, governing themselves 
in an almost republican fashion." 

It seemed strange to Dorothy that by 
no design of her own she should be on her 
way to see the castle and the village which 
Count Farniente had once offered her, and 
she scanned the country and the people with 
peculiar interest. 

Shortly after leaving the town they crossed 
one of the mountain torrents, which in time 

WANDA. 

of freshet become so appalling, but which 
now slipped along in the centre of a pebbly bed which seemed a 
world too wide for its shrunken proportions. On the centre of the 
bridge there had been raised one of those painful images of the 
crucified Christ, so common in the Tyrol. It was large, and colored 
with ghastly realism. Dorothy looked at it with intense repulsion. 
" What possible good can such a hideous thing do ? " she asked. 
As she spoke a little peasant-girl approached hurriedly. She car- 
ried in one hand a milk-can, in the other a long stick or pole. She 
















Wi 






ADLERSRUHE AND THE ORTLER SPITZ. 1 85 

knelt a moment before the image, then tying the milk-can to the 
pole, lifted it to the lips of the figure upon the cross. Then seeing 
that the eyes of the two strangers were fixed upon her, she colored 
and courtesied. 

" Why did you do that, little girl ? " Dorothy asked in German. 

" It is so hot," the child replied, " and the Herr Christ must be 
very thirsty. We bring our milk every morning from our dairy. 
Father Pacifico has told us that we will never prosper if we do not 
offer the first fruits of all our possessions to the Herr Christ. Surely, 
too, if we were so stony-hearted as to leave him suffering there in 
the cruel heat, the very river would rise to quench his thirst." 

With a quaint little courtesy she scampered across the bridge 
to a yoke of creamy oxen which were slowly proceeding on their 
way with a cart of rattling milk-cans. 

" So Father Pacifico is settled here ! " said Elsie. " It will be 
very pleasant to meet him again." 

Later in the day, as the party approached the village, they saw that 
it was peculiarly situated, being entirely within the lines of fortifica- 
tion of the ancient castle, which covered a bit of level land on the 
spur of the mountain. It was the best available land for building 
a village for miles around, for the road had begun to mount 
steeply, and was in many places a mere shelf on the side of the 
cliff. Within the castle walls was a level space filled with a hun- 
dred or more little houses. What had been the castle chapel 
was now the village church, and Father Pacifico stood upon its 
steps. He recognized the girls and greeted them cordially, follow- 
ing them to the inn, which had been constructed out of the old 
residential portion of the castle. A rude sign on the front announced 
a balcony with schone ausgesicht. They entered a great room, which 
had once been hung with tapestry and armor, for it was the ancient 
rittersaal. From its balcony, which jutted out over the ravine, they 
looked away to the glistening cone of the Ortler Spitz. It seemed 



i86 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



more unapproachable than ever, and a light cloud like a puff of 
smoke brooded over the summit. Mr. Bruce shook his head. " That 
means that there is a storm up there," he said ; " but it may all clear 

away by to-morrow." 

Their host could not furnish dinner 
at a moments notice. He would, how- 
ever, serve them a light luncheon. The 
gentlemen cared for nothing, and went 
out for a walk. " We will take some 
milk," Dorothy said to Elsie, " but noth- 
ing else, for it will be an extra. The 
arrangement is made for three regular 
meals, and you know how every extra 
is made to count up." She explained 
to the host that they would pay on the 
spot for the milk, that it need not be 
put in the bill. 

" Ja, ja," said the host, bringing them 
capacious beer-mugs filled with excel- 
lent milk. He was a portly man with 
an expansive smile. He seemed to en- 
joy regarding them with an air of 
patriarchal benevolence, and he re- 
marked as they nibbled the rolls which 
had been ordered with the milk, " I have 
some such beautiful pears." No reply 
being vouchsafed, he retreated into the 
kitchen, only to reappear after a few minutes and to say in a pitying 
tone, " If those ladies only tasted my pears, they would eat nothing 
else for a month." 

" We do not care for any pears," Dorothy replied shortly. 

" No pears ? " he exclaimed in surprise. " Ah ! if these ladies 




MINE HOST. 



ADLERSRUHE AXD THE ORTLER SPITZ. 1 87 

only knew how good they were ! " A pause, no answer, and he again 
disappeared, murmuring, " After all, why should I afflict myself ? 
It is your loss, not mine " 

Elsie laughed.. " He is irresistible," she said to Dorothy in 
English; "let us try his fruit just to please him." As though he 
understood her words, the inn-keeper returned, bearing a basket of 
very large and handsome pears which he set down on the table 
before them without a word, but with an expression which said 
very plainly, " There, resist them if you can." Dorothy tasted one. 
"They are really excellent," she admitted. The girls continued to 
eat, their long walk having given them a keen appetite ; and much 
to their own surprise, they soon finished the basket. 

" I wonder what he will charge us. We ought to have made 
a bargain in advance ; there were certainly eight or ten of them." 

The host came at their call, an expansive smile spreading over 
his features as he noted the empty basket. " What is the charge ? " 
Dorothy asked. 

The inn-keeper counted on his fingers. " Eight ? " he replied 
doubtfully. 

" Eight marks, — that is two dollars. The old rascal ! " Elsie ex- 
claimed. " Tell him we will give him one dollar, and no more." 

" Eight pfennig," said the inn-keeper, slowly. 

"What?" asked Dorothy, thinking she could not have heard 
aright. 

" Eight pfennig," repeated their host. And this sum — four cents 
— was all that they could persuade him to accept. Much refreshed 
and amused, they strolled out to inspect the village. The houses 
were very small, but they seemed neater than those in the valley 
towns. Boys were driving back the cows from the pastures up 
in the clefts of the mountain, and the bells chimed with a not 
unmusical rhythm. Below the town the ravines were filled with 
pine-forests, and woodcutters were bringing in small loads of sticks 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



strapped on the backs of donkeys. The fires of a furnace glowed in 
what had once been the donjon-keep of the castle, for charcoal-burning 
was the principal industry of the little village. The burners were 
coming back from their work, and many of them paused at the 
fountain in the square to wash their sooty faces before entering 
their homes. Father Pacifico drew their attention to all this, and 
Dorothy remarked on the general air of contentment and industry. 
The good priest heaved a sigh. " If it could only remain so," he 
murmured ; " but no, the owner of the castle 
was here lately upon a visit, and she proposes 
to make it over for a summer residence." 

" Is that altogether a misfortune ? " Dorothy 
asked. " Will not the presence of wealthy peo- 
ple — the natural patrons and protectors of the 
villagers — create new industries and bring in 
a better state of things in every way ? " 

" No," replied the priest, " not even if they 
were kindly disposed to the villagers. What my 
people want is not patronage but liberty. They 
can help themselves. To be aided would only 
teach them dependence and servility. Moreover, 
the owner of the castle does not love her people. 
She is not of them ; how can she love them ? 
It is her plan to turn them all from their homes; and she brought 
an architect with her who has been measuring and taking notes all 
about the village, and walking into houses without so much as say- 
ing by your leave. I found him in the chapel making drawings, 
and he did not scruple to tell me that it was the contessa's inten- 
tion to make over the sacred edifice into a ball-room. ' We will 
banish all this dirty charcoal and these grimy charcoal-burners,' he 
said ; ' the entire village shall be swept away, and I will restore 
the castle to its mediaeval state in a way that will make the ghost 




FATHER PACIFICO AGAIN. 



HTSfe e I 




ADLERSRUHE AXD THE ORTLER SPITZ. 191 

of Violet le Due wail with envy.' I saw the architects designs > 
and 'I must admit they were fair pictures." 

" But," said Dorothy, " it would surely make a very lonely though 
disfnified residence." 

" The Baths of Bormio are near enough to make it endurable 
during the season. When the woodchoppers are no longer here, 
the chamois will venture down into the forests, and there will be 
merry hunting-parties. It is all for the young people, — the son 
of the contessa and his wealthy bride. They will amuse themselves 
here for three months in the year and then flit away to Venice, 
or to some of the gay capitals of Europe, and never trouble them- 
selves with the fate of my poor people.'' 

Dorothy was greatly surprised. The count's marriage was spoken 
of as something quite settled, and yet but a few weeks had elapsed 
since he had assured Mrs. Irving that he was a free man and since 
he had seemed so devoted to her. Either the new negotiations 
for this betrothal had been pushed with extraordinary haste, or they 
were pending while the count was still in Baveno. A revelation 
of the man's utter heartlessness came to her, and she could hardly 
command her voice to ask, — 

" Did you tell the contessa what you thought of her plans ? " 

" I interceded with her, but to no purpose. She is a hard woman, 
and cordially hated by my parishioners. Were it not that they are 
all good Christians, it might not have been so safe for her to visit 
among them." 

After their return to the inn, the little girl whom she had met 
upon the bridge appeared with bouquets of edelweiss, which she 
wished to sell. 

"This is very nice," Dorothy said. "I presume they come from 
the Ortler Spitz." 

" Not exactly," the little maid confessed. " Father Pacifico says 
I must never tell a lie, and I grow them in my garden. I have a 



192 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



great bed of them ; and I make it larger every year, for I collect 
the seed and plant anew." 

" Cultivated edelweiss ! That takes away all the romance ! " 
exclaimed Dorothy. " It is supposed to grow only in the most 
inaccessible clefts, and to be obtained at the risk of life and limb. 
Still, it is right to tell the truth ; and I will buy this bouquet, for 
it is very pretty. Always mind Father Pacifico, little girl." 

A troubled look came into the child's face. " I did not mind 
him as we came back from town," she said. " My milk-cans were 
all empty, and it was so late that I did not stop to go down to the 
river for some water for the poor Christ." 

" Don't trouble your little head about that senseless image ; but 
when you see some suffering human being in need of your aid, 
remember that Jesus told us that as we give our help to such an one, 
we give it to him." 

" After all," Dorothy thought, " what right have I, who have never 
considered any one but myself, to preach to that child ? How simple 
and sweet her life is, and what a sermon it is to me ! " 

All the party were wakened at four in the morning, and set out 
with guides and horses in the early dawn. Even at that hour there 
was a numerous escort of " young adlers," as the children of the vil- 
lage were called, assembled at the door of the inn to accompany the 
party a little distance on its way. The ladies rode the horses, which 
were left at a mountaineer's hut where the party paused ior break- 
fast. From this point all proceeded on foot. The cloud which had 
been observed the previous day had lifted, the weather was perfect, 
and beautiful views were afforded in every direction. They were 
on the Ortler Spitz, whose summit is 12,680 feet above the sea. 
Mont Zebru, 12,150 feet high, towered upon one hand and the 
beautiful Konigspitze on the other. Away toward the south lay 
the Italian Lakes, and the Stelvio Pass was at their feet. 

The air was stimulating, and they felt no fatigue until they 



ADLERSRUHE AND THE ORTLER SPITZ. 



95 



reached the snow, when Mrs. Bruce and Elsie grew so weary that 
they decided to await the return of the others at the " Paverhutte," 
where they spread their picnic-luncheon, — in full view of the summit 
and apparently very near it. Dorothy, whose strength and spirits 
were unflagging, trudged bravely on- 
ward with the three Alpinists and 
the guides. The pathway was not 
difficult until they reached the cone, 
when all were attached to the rope. 
The view from the summit was mae- 




j\ nificent, but the wind 
was blowing furiously, 
and snow-clouds were 
fast piling up. " We 
GUIDES . must not remain an 

instant," said the old- 
est guide ; " it will snow before night, and we must try to reach the 
hut where we left the horses before the storm sets in." 

They hurried back, but it began to snow when they were still 
two miles from the hut where they left their animals. Dorothy, 



196 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



who had walked much farther than Elsie, began to grow desperately 
weary. The newly-fallen snow clogged her feet and the white flakes 
blurred her eyes. She stumbled on uncomplainingly, but in the rear 
of the procession. Once she fell, and on rising saw that the others 
were quite a distance in advance of her. Like a cold hand on her 
heart came the thought, "What if that drift had hidden a crevasse 
and I had been left unnoticed to freeze to death ? " She exerted all 
her strength and soon overtook the others. One of the guides 
noticed her pale face and held out his alpenstock. 
She grasped the chamois horn on the end of it, 
and for the remainder of the way allowed herself 
to be towed along. They arrived at the hut where 
the horses awaited them just as night was fall- 
ing". The ladies could now ride, and the neces- 
sity for painful exertion was passed ; but the most 
dangerous part of their trip was before them The 
path was very steep, the snow hid the loose stones, 
and the girls were jolted and shaken most uncom- 
fortably. The horses stumbled not unfrequently, 
and great care was required to avoid being thrown 
over their heads. A guide walked at the head 
of each horse, probing the snow with his alpenstock to make sure 
of their footing. It seemed to Dorothy's excited imagination that 
they ran the gauntlet of a thousand perils. At one time, when her 
horse stumbled and she tried to pull him up, the rein snapped 
at the bit. The guide mended it with his shoestring. 

" Is it all right now?" Dorothy asked anxiously, as they proceeded. 
" All right," responded the guide laconically, "provided the string 
holds." 

Dorothy said afterward that she had never before realized so 
vividly that her life hung upon a thread. As it grew darker, and 
she felt herself more and more helpless, a sense of awe came over 




A YOUNG ADLER. 



ADLERSRUHE AND THE ORTLER SPITZ. 



199 



her. " If I should fall into this precipice at my right," she thought, 
" and my foolish little life should end now and here, what would 
be my chief regret ? " With a pang of keen remorse came the 
thought of her injustice to Valerie. " She has seen the play," 
Dorothy thought, " and could easily obtain the prize if she knew 
of it How could I be so dishonorable as to hold back the infor- 
mation from her? If ever I reach Adlersruhe she shall be told 
at once." 

There was a pause among those in advance. " Mr. Bruce has 
sprained his ankle. He can walk no farther." 

" Let him take my horse," Dorothy exclaimed, sliding to the 
ground. " I am quite rested, and can walk the rest of the way 
easily." As though to encourage them just at this most desperate 
part of their journey, a part of the sky cleared temporarily, the 
storm lulled, and the moon shone out, giving them light upon their 
way. (See frontispiece.) Dorothy took this as a good omen, and 
plunged on bravely ; though her wet skirts, blown about by the 
wind, buffeted her with every step and nearly dragged her down. 
Several times she would have given up, but the fire of her new 
resolve to tell Valerie kept her up; and at last, just as the storm 
began again, the sound of a bell was heard, and the lights of 
Adlersruhe were seen shining through the murk. The great bea- 
con was lighted for them on the donjon-keep, — a bucket of tar 
swinging from an iron crane. 

It was Father Pacifico who had ordered the bell to be rung, 
hoping that its sound might be heard far up the valley. Their host 
had provided a steaming supper redolent with garlic, and Aunt 
Jane, trembling with anxiety, received them with open arms. 

A fire had been made in the great porcelain stove in the girls' 
bedroom. It looked like a church or^an fashioned in green china. 
Aunt Jane had mistaken it for a wardrobe, and had bestowed her 
caps in the oven. They were done to a crisp, and an odor of 



200 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

burnt crape pervaded the room. As Dorothy was sinking to sleep 
under an extra eider-down coverlid, Wanda, the little maid of the 
edelweiss, tapped at the door. "I wanted. to see with my own eyes 
that you are safe," she said. " It is storming fearfully. What was 
snow with you has been rain here and in the valley. They say 
that the bridge will probably be carried away. It is all my fault, 
because I was so hard-hearted as to refuse to give the dear suffer- 
ing Christ a cup of water. The very river took pity upon him 
and has raised itself to his lips." 

It rained steadily for three days, and the wetterglocke, or storm- 
bells, were kept ringing as a charm against the lightning. 

" Then banks came down with ruin and rout, 
Then beaten foam flew all about, 
And all the mighty floods were out." 

The travellers were safely housed in the old castle, but every day 
news came to them of some fresh disaster. The head forester had 
had a large part of the season's lumber carried away, and could not 
understand it, for a cross had been chopped on every log. There 
had been avalanches and landslides, and tall trees uprooted or 
snapped like pipe-stems. The wassermauer — a dike which pro- 
tected a little milling-village down the valley — had given way, and 
the inhabitants, who had fortunately had warning in time, took 
refuge at Adlersruhe. 

Father Pacifico was very active. As soon as the storm was 
over he was out all day rowing over the submerged meadows from 
house to house, and affording help and succor to persons who had 
been cut off by the water from outside .communication. In several 
cases they had driven their cows into the houses, and even to the 
upper stories, to save them from the inundation. There were few 
deaths, for the rain had come on gradually, with plenty of warning, 
and the Tyrolese are used to these storms; but there was much 
loss of property and suffering. 



ADLERSRUHE AND THE ORTLER SPITZ. 203 

The homeless people were lodged temporarily in the castle, and 
the inhabitants of Adlersruhe responded nobly to the demand made 
upon their charities. They gave not as to beggars, but as to brothers 
in distress ; and not only ministered to their bodily needs, but also 
entertained them as guests. 

There was a wedding at Adlersruhe while the little community 
was still shut in by the broken bridge. All of the strangers were 
invited to the dance, which took place in the dining-hall of the inn. 
It was like one of Defreggers pictures. The men were all clothed 
in the mountaineer costume of gray and green, enlivened with scarlet. 
Every hat was decorated with a bunch of edelweiss, the beard of 
a chamois, or curling cock's-feathers. The dance was one of the 
wildest the girls had ever witnessed. The men turned somersaults 
and handsprings between the figures ; and at a given signal each man 
seized his partner by the waist, and aided by a little jump on her 
part, tossed her high into the air. 

The fiddler was enthroned on the high porcelain stove, and 
Father Pacifico sat at the table beside the bride and groom. The 
master of ceremonies — a witty fellow bearing a long wand decorated 
with ribbons — would call off the names of the guests, making a few 
humorous and personal remarks as he did so; and each as called 
would shake hands with the young couple, drink their health from 
a capacious beer-mug, and leave a small wedding-present in money 
in the plate in front of the bride. It was all very homely and 
simple, but honest and generous. 

Interested as Dorothy was in the insight which she was obtain- 
ing into the life of the villagers, she was still very anxious to hurry 
on to Innsbruck, to make amends to Valerie as soon as possible, 
and while there was yet time for her to join in the competition ; 
but for the present she was a close prisoner. " Can I not send a 
letter, or telegram ? " she asked anxiously. But the nearest telegraph 
and post office was on the other side of the river, which it was still 



204 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

dangerous to cross even by boat, owing to the wreckage of lumber 
with which it was choked. 

There was nothing to do but to wait ; and in spite of her im- 
patience she found the waiting interesting, as she went about with 
little Wanda, striving to help the poor people. 

Elsie was at a loss to understand why Dorothy, who was at first 
so averse to visiting Valerie, was now so eager to do so. She even 
suggested that by stopping in Innsbruck Dorothy would lose all 
chance of seeing the play in time to describe it. 

" You do not understand,'' Dorothy replied. " I must see Valerie 
at once. It is a great deal more important than that I should 
write that article, even if my only chance of literary success depends 
upon it." And then, in a passion of repentance, she confessed her 
sin. " Oh, Elsie ! " she said, " how you ■ must despise me ! but no 
more than I despise myself. But you see now why I must get to 
Valerie right away Look at that calendar ! How the days are 
racing by! I ought not to stay here another hour!" 

Elsie soothed her excited friend ; and that evening they held 
a council with Mr. Bruce, explaining that it was very necessary 
that they should proceed upon their journey. 

" The river is clearing," Mr. Bruce replied, " and my ankle will 
now permit me to walk. It may be that to-morrow I can row you 
across in the boat, with the help of several pairs of stout arms ; but 
you must promise to sit perfectly still, and not to be frightened." 

"I can promise for all' of us," Elsie replied; and on the next 
morning they bade farewell to Adlersruhe. The mountain paths 
were so slippery and had been cut through by so many new torrents 
that it was thought best to walk down to the river rather than to 
attempt descending on horseback. Porters carried the little lug- 
gage which they had brought, and a great hamper of luncheon, — 
a free gift from their host, brought forward after their bill was paid. 
They thought of him many times as they munched his pears, and 




THE STORM IN THE MOUNTAIN'S. 



ADLERSRUHE AND THE ORTLER SPITZ. 207 

of little Wanda, who folloAved them half way down the mountain 
side with her hands filled with edelweiss and her eyes with tears. 

It was a perilous trip ; but they were all brave and resolute, Aunt 
Jane behaving admirably, tucking her petticoats up and skipping 
over the rocks with the agility of a young girl. At one place they 
were obliged to cross a roaring brook on a bri'dge consisting of a 
single log. While Dorothy closed her eyes and allowed herself 
to be led across, Aunt Jane disdained all help, and even paused 
on the centre of the bridge to look downward. 

At another turn in the road they found that a new brook had 
poured into the path from the cliff, and finding a convenient bed 
prepared for it, had chosen to go brawling down the mountain by 
the very way in which they must also go. There was no alternative 
but to walk for the ' rest of the way in the bed of the brook, with 
the water splashing all around them. " It makes me think of a 
Pfingstbrauch," said the father of little Wanda, who was one of the 
porters. 

" And what is that ? " asked Elsie. 

" On the day of that festival," chuckled the old man, " not even 
the slothful lie a-bed late ; for parties of stout young fellows go 
from house to house, and if any sluggard is still a-bed she is car- 
ried in a litter-bed to the nearest stream and there set down where 
the water will pour over her while she is decorated with a wreath 
of nettles. They never catch the same girl two successive years." 

Arrived at the landing, the condition of the river promised a 
safe crossing, and they set out hopefully; but the current was so 
strong that they were carried far below their intended landing-place, 
and it was necessary to walk a long distance up the bank to the 
village where they hoped to take the stage for Meran, which was 
the nearest point whence they could continue their journey by rail. 
" It is long past the hour," said Mr. Bruce ; " I fear that you will 
be obliged to wait until to-morrow." 



208 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

But the rain had delayed the stellwagen and they found it 
drawn up before the door of the post-house. Mr. Bruce bade them 
good-by, for he and his wife intended remaining several weeks at 
Adlersruhe. 

The journey was very wearisome; for owing to the condition 
of the roads the stage seemed scarcely to crawl, and often came 
to a dead halt, while the driver, assisted by the passengers, removed 
larches or pines or stones which had fallen in the road. The 
scenery all around them was glorious, for even the lesser moun- 
tains were snow-clad. They were in a white world, and the desire 
blossomed in Dorothy's heart to grow white of soul. There was 
only one ambition now which was not hateful to her, — the ambition 
to be unselfish and helpful to others. 

It was dark before they reached Meran ; but the coach crept 
safely in during the wee hours of the night, and the wearied travel- 
lers were glad to bury themselves under the mountainous feather-puffs 
of the pension. 

If Dorothy had consulted her own desires she would have allowed 
the others scant time for repose, for there was an early morning 
train which she would have liked to take. But Aunt Jane was 
tired out; and though she did not intend to go to Innsbruck with 
them, would have insisted on being up to see the girls off. 

Elsie too looked pale and wan. A later train would bring them 
to Valerie in time for her to finish and send the article which 
Dorothy knew was already written ; but there is no fever which 
quickens the pulse like the desire to make amends for a wrong 
when a soul is once awakened to its recognition. Elsie slept the 
profound and dreamless sleep of exhaustion. Dorothy slept but 
fitfully ; and awaking Or dreaming, her mind was busy with Valerie. 



CHAPTER XL 

AT INNSBRUCK. 

„ Ogg ILBERT AUSTIN, after his return to Innsbruck, 
^/ff^/^&^ ^ iac * endeavored to apply himself to his duties. 
C(|r- -^Cli§J Unfortunately they were not arduous, and he had 
m^SpySjp plenty of time to think of little Diena, and to 
p^y^^^*^J wonder when he would meet her again. He had 
never before taken so great an interest in house- 
maids. Never a white cap or apron appeared within the scope 
of his vision but his heart gave a choking thump, and he found 
himself staring at the nurses who wheeled the baby-carriages along 
the shady banks of the Inn. But he did not find her, and no word 
came to him from the peasant-girl who had so touched his heart 
at Ober Ammergau. 

His father, — kind-hearted Judge Austin, — who had waited in 
Switzerland until his son should establish himself, came to Inns- 
bruck; and Gilbert found occupation for a few days in showing 
him the sights. These were soon exhausted, and one day the judge 
expressed a desire to call on his old acquaintance. Count von Hohen- 
berg. Gilbert begged to be excused from accompanying his father, 
as he had already made his call of ceremony, and had not enjoyed 
it. The judge had a different experience. His friends welcomed 
him cordially ; and Valerie, who was glad to meet Gilbert's father 
once more, entertained him so pleasantly that the judge was com- 
pletely charmed. 

14 



2IO 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 




" I can't make myself believe that you are a foreigner," he said. 
" I have n't had such a home-like feeling, as if I were back in 
America, since I met those friends of yours at Lucerne. Nice girls, 
too, both of them, though Gilbert didn't seem to take to them 
particularly. I think it must have been because they were Vassar 
girls. A good many young men are afraid of college girls ; they 
are afraid that they can't keep up that little fiction of the superiority 

of the masculine mind before them. 
Let me see, — you have never met Gil- 
bert, have you ? " 

Valerie could not utter an untruth. 
" I saw him in Ober Ammergau," she 
replied hesitatingly. 

" Indeed ! He did not mention it. 
Sly dogs, these young fellows ! " 

" Mr. Austin did not know me. We 
were not introduced ; but some friends 
of mine told me his name." 

" Sorry he did not have the pleasure 
of your acquaintance ; he might have 
been able to show you some attention.. 
May I bring him to call upon you ? He is anxious to know you." 

The worthy judge faltered a little as he uttered this polite 
untruth. Valerie understood him, and replied, " Mr. Austin has my 
parents' permission to call, but so far does not seem very eager to 
avail himself of it. Perhaps when my Vassar friends arrive, the 
chateau will possess greater attractions for him." 

" My dear young lady, Gilbert is not interested in your friends, 
or in any one else, I do assure you. His heart is as tough as an 
armadillo's coat. If your bright eyes make any impression upon 
him, they will be the first that have ever done so. He is an incor- 
rigible old bachelor, and declares that he will never marry." 






JUDGE AUSTIN. 



AT INNSBRUCK. 21 I 

" Indeed ! " said Valerie. " May I ask whether he has made that 
declaration since his return from Ober Ammergau ? It was remarked 
there that he was quite attentive to a peasant-girl from the Zillerthal." 

" A peasant-girl ! Impossible ! you must be mistaken. Gilbert 
is not fond of low associations. It 's not like him, and he knows 
it would never suit me." 

But in spite of his apparent disbelief in the information, the 
judge was worried. He did not interrogate his son immediately. 
" If Gilbert has anything to tell me he will tell it," he said to him- 
self. " I will not force his confidence." But he watched the young 
man closely, and was not satisfied. He could not persuade him to 
call on the Von Hohenbergs with him, and he was at his wit's end 
to make excuses for his neglect. Valerie had confided to her mother 
the entire experience at Ober Ammergau. " So," said that lady, " the 
young man believes you to be a peasant, and loves you ! Well, he 
is not likely to be disappointed when he knows your true position." 

Frau von Hohenberg, without relating the entire adventure to 
her husband, explained to him that the young people had met at 
Ober Ammergau, and were interested in each other. It might be 
well to see more of this young Mr. Austin before the matter was 
quite settled with Cousin Farniente. 

Judge Austin dined with them that afternoon ; and over the 
walnuts, after the ladies had left them, the count in the blunt 
German fashion frankly broached the question. 

" I have seen your son," the count said " and like him. I know 
his antecedents and his prospects, and like them. You have seen 
my daughter, and you know me and what I can give her. Tell 
me, would she please you as a daughter-in-law ? " 

The judge expressed himself as delighted. Such good fortune 
for Gilbert exceeded his wildest dreams, his fondest hopes. 

" Then give me your hand upon it, old friend ; and we will 
have the betrothal party before you go back to America." 



212 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



" Certainly, certainly," replied the judge ; " but the young people, 
— they must be consulted. Your daughter, Miss Valerie, may not 
fancy Gilbert." 

The count smiled reassuringly. " The young people met at 
Ober Ammergau," he said. " I fancy that there will be no objection 
on their part to our plan." 

The judge uttered a smothered exclamation. " Both — eration." 
" You remarked ? " 

" Nothing, sir, nothing. My boy's good fortune simply takes my 
breath away. I am overwhelmed ; and if 
anything should happen to break off this 
match, I '11 marry Miss Valerie myself." 

" Then, sir,'' said the count, " will you 
kindly say to your son that I am planning 
various festivities to celebrate the visit of 
my daughter's friend, and among other 
things a little driving-excursion in which 
we shall be pleased to include him ? " 

"With pleasure, my dear friend, with 

pleasure ! " and the poor judge sought his 

son's office in a most unhappy frame of 

mind. Gilbert was alone, and evidently his 

official duties were not weighing heavily upon him, for he was 

sketching. 

" Gilbert," exclaimed his father, " your avoidance of the Von 
Hohenbergs has become downright rudeness. I want you to call 
on them." 

" May I ask why you wish me to perform so irksome a task ? " 
" Why, you young idiot, if you knew Miss Valerie you would n't 
find it irksome. She 's just the prettiest, nicest girl I 've met since 
I left the States." 

" I can't deny it, since I have not seen her." 




A T INNSBRUCK. 2 I 3 

" But you did see her in Ober Ammergau." 

" Indeed! Yes, I remember they told me she had gone there; but 
we did not meet." 

" No, because you were too much occupied in another quarter." 

Gilbert started. " I was a cripple while at Ober Ammergau, 
confined much of my time to my room. I made no calls." 

" Then it is not true that you flirted with a peasant-girl until you 
were the talk of the town ? " 

The young man flushed to the roots of his hair. " I never flirt. 
Who told you so ? " 

" Never mind ; we will let that drop. I am very glad there is no 
truth in it ; for, Gilbert, I bring you the best piece of news that ever 
came to you, or could come, in all your life. Listen seriously, and 
don't answer too quickly The Count von Hohenberg offers you the 
hand of his daughter Valerie." 

" Which I have the honor to refuse/' 

" W^ait a minute, Gilbert ; don't be in a hurry." 

" Do you suppose I am to be disposed of as if I were a bag of 
grain ? " 

" Of course not. Their ways are n't like ours, Gilbert ; and I 
own I was a trifle put to when the count sprung it on me. But 
the young lady is such a charming one, Gilbert ! I believe if you 
had met without knowing anything of this, you would have fallen 
head and ears in love with her. And don't you think it 's a trifle 
foolish to refuse such a onft of Providence without seeing her ? 
Why, man alive ! You could n't refuse her if you saw her." 

"Then I refuse, to see her." 

" Why, you obstinate young imbecile ! When the mere looking 
at her compromises you to nothing; when nobody asks you to marry 
her if you do not love her ; but when it would be the luckiest thing 
for you that could possibly happen if you could fall in love with her, 
and when I 'd be willing to stake my life that you could n't see 



2I 4 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

her without loving her, why in the name of common-sense do you 
act in this cantankerous way ? " 

" Because," the young man replied with an effort, " if what you 
say of her irresistible attractions is true, I am bound in all honor not 
to expose myself to them." And then he told his father of his 
meeting with Diena at Ober Ammergau, and how he had loved 
and lost her. The old judge was very angry. It seemed to him 
a piece of supreme folly ; but he saw that his son was in earnest, 
and after scolding him soundly, he wrote the Count von Hohenberg 
an incoherent letter, from which the irate gentleman could only 
glean that the father was very wretched, for Gilbert Austin could 
not or would not accept the honor offered him. 

Just at this juncture Count Farniente arrived upon the scene. 
" This indignity serves me right," thought Valerie's father, " for 
having acted with duplicity toward my good cousin Farniente." 
He received the young count with open arms, privately informing 
Valerie that her marriage with her cousin had been formally decided 
upon. 

It was in the midst of this complication that Dorothy and Elsie 
reached Innsbruck. 

Valerie greeted her old friend with delight, but after a quick 
embrace turned to Dorothy with simple but hearty cordiality. " It 
is so good of you to visit me," she said ; " I feared that I could not 
persuade you to do so, for we were not very intimate at college." 

The three girls were alone in the family carriage, for Valerie 
had driven to the Innsbruck station to meet her friends; and before 
they arrived at the chateau Dorothy made a full confession. 

" I do not see that I have anything to forgive," Valerie said. 
"You simply did not send me a bit of information; and for that 
matter, Elsie did not send it either, and I do not see that she 
is consumed with remorse." 

"You do not seem to understand," Dorothy insisted, coloring 



A T INNSBRUCK. 2 I 5 

painfully, "that I was bound in honor to let you know, and that I 
disgracefully kept back the letter which Elsie thought I had sent." 

" Say no more, dear," said Valerie ; " it makes no difference at 
all, since I have no intention of competing." 

" But you must," Dorothy pleaded eagerly " You wrote Elsie that 
you had written an essay on the Passion Play. There is still time 
for it to reach the committee, if you mail it at once. This is why 
we have pushed on in such haste. I shall not believe that you 
have forgiven me if you do not send it." 

" Since you desire it so much, I will mail it this very afternoon. 
But your own essay ? " 

" I will send it at the same time, and then the chances will be 
quite even." 

" I beg pardon, Dorothy dear ; I am sure that I have the advan- 
tage, for you have not seen the Play." 

" True ; but my trip thus far has been of great advantage to me, 
for we stopped at Coventry in England, and there I read a great 
deal about the Mystery Plays that were acted there in the Middle 
Ages. In Paris, too, I read for several days in the Library of 
St. Genevieve, and found much that was interesting on the subject 
of the mediaeval Mysteries as they were played in France. Then 
at Meran I informed myself on German plays of the same nature ; 
so I think I have a pretty good historical review of the subject" 

" Then I shall not be surprised if you take the prize ; and I 
really hope you may," Valerie said sincerely. 

" Oh, Valerie," Dorothy replied, " you cannot imagine what a 
weight you have taken from my mind ! " 

" I wish you could reciprocate, and take a weight from mine," 
said Valerie, as the carriage came to a stop before the chateau. 

" And what is the incubus ? " Dorothy asked gayly. 

" The incubus is my cousin Pasquale," Valerie replied ; " and he 
is coming down the steps to open the carriage door for us." 



2l6 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

Meeting Count Farniente in this way was a great surprise to 
Dorothy ; but she responded to his salutations with quiet dignity, 
passing by him as quickly as possible. Both the Count and Countess 
yon Hohenberg stood in the entrance hall to receive their daughter's 
guests. After a hearty welcome, they were shown to their rooms 
to dress for dinner. Valerie brought her essay into Dorothy's room, 
and read it to her. " It is delightful," was Dorothy's comment ; " so 
fresh and enthusiastic ! Mine is only a bundle of dry bones ; yours 
pulsates with life and love." 

" I was very happy when I wrote it," Valerie said with a little sigh ; 
and then she listened while Dorothy read hers, and Valerie honestly 
admired it; after which the two essays were bound up together and 
entrusted to a servant to mail. 

For two days the girls visited together very happily. As it 
was too late to utilize a visit to Ober Ammergau in her essay, 
Dorothy was in no haste to reach the village ; and she enjoyed 
heartily the sights of Innsbruck as they were shown her by Valerie, 
while the young hostess assured her friends again and again that 
she would be quite happy if only Cousin Pasquale would go away. 
To a man of a more active temperament than Count Farniente 
the presence under the same roof of two young ladies, each of whom 
he had honored with his addresses, would have been embarrassing, 
to say the least. But the count was never embarrassed, never im- 
passioned ; he allowed circumstances to have their own way, and 
lead him where they would. He was simply suave, complaisant, 
indolent, with the same admiring expression of the eyes and the 
same meaningless smile for Valerie and for Dorothy. 

One afternoon Dorothy told the count of her visit to his castle, 
and begged him to leave the inhabitants of Adlersruhe undisturbed. 

" That is a strange request," the count replied. " I fear my mother 
would regard it as sheer nonsense; and after all it is she, not I, 
who has the changes at heart." 



A T INNSBRUCK. 2 I J 

" But it is for your sake that she is planning them," Dorothy 
replied. " If you assured her that you did not wish to live at the 
castle, she would not compel you to do so." 

" You do not know my mother," the count said helplessly. " She 
always has her own way, and ends by making me desire it. Do 
you like garlic ? No ? I did not like garlic. In fact, as a youth 
I experienced for it a repugnance inexpressible. But my mother 
adored it; she caused every dish that appeared upon our table to 
be seasoned with it. I ate it in self defence, and now I adore 
garlic. You also would adore it if you had the happiness to live 
with my mother." 

While they were chatting, Count von Hohenberg stamped angrily 
into the room. " A word with you alone, Cousin Pasquale," he ex- 
claimed imperatively ; and Dorothy stepped out into the garden, 
wondering what had rendered her host so wrathful. 

" I have here a letter from your mother," said Count von Hohen- 
berg, — "a letter intended for you, but which a mischievous — or shall 
I rather say a fortunate — chance has caused her to address to me. 
She writes : — 

"'My DEAR Son, — I have just learned from Mrs Irving that the young 
lady in whom you were interested at Baveno — the Signorina Dorothea Thorne 
— is a woman of a great fortune in her own right, and consequently a much 
better partie than your cousin Valerie. Under these circumstances I withdraw 
all my objections to the young lady, and leave you to withdraw as best you 
may from the engagement which I entered into on your behalf.' 

" Do you hear that ? " roared Valerie's father. " I will save you 
the trouble of extricating yourself. You are dismissed, Cousin 
Pasquale, and the sooner you take yourself from my house the 
better. You need not remain to bid adieu to the ladies or to pack 
your baggage. My man Josef will meet you at the station with 
it in time for the afternoon train. You may go, sir. You may go." 

Count Farniente stood listening to this outburst with folded arms. 



21 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL, 



" I call you to witness, Cousin," he said, with languid self-possession, 
" that I am absolutely passive in this matter. I have had nothing 
to do either with the engagement or with its breaking. It has all 
been arranged and disarranged between your honored self and my 

mother." 

In a way his words were true ; but it 
was an unmanly thing to allow his mother 
to bear the brunt of blame when he knew 
that her action in the matter had his 
hearty concurrence. Count von Hohen- 
berg felt this, and it made him all the 
angrier. 

" You are right," he said ; " you are 
a do-nothing, a nobody! You have no 
more character of your own than a shut- 
tlecock ! Bat ! your noble mother Battle- 
dore sends you flying this way. Bat ! I 
send you flying back. The game is ended. 
Begone, I say ! " 

Count Farniente bowed ceremonious- 
ly, and passing into the hall, took his hat, 
and strolled nonchalantly down the garden 
walk. Dorothy was returning to the 
house, and his step quickened a little as 
he saw her. 

" Signorina," he said, " I am going away ; 
it is very sudden. My mother calls .me." 
" Your mother seems to have a habit of summoning you suddenly," 
Dorothy replied. 

" It is true," he replied moodily ; " such is her not altogether pleas- 
ing custom. Nevertheless, at this time I am glad to obey her sum- 
mons, — or would be were it not that they take me again from you. 




"BAT ! 



A T INNSBRUCK. 1 1 9 

But, signorina, I trust you will allow me to follow you to America, 
and there present myself at the house of your honored father to 
supplicate your hand." 

Dorothy started. " Count Farniente," she exclaimed in dis- 
pleasure, " I understand that your position in this house is that of 
Valerie's suitor. Is this conduct honorable ? " 

" Perfectly so, dear signorina. My mother and the Count von 
Hohenberg have each released me from that disagreeable position, 
and I am free to offer you that heart of which you so long have 
possession." 

Dorothy smiled incredulously. " I do not know what has influ- 
enced you to make this declaration," she replied. " I might have 
believed it, count, if it had been made at Baveno ; but now " — 
she opened her hands with a pretty gesture of refusal — " I have had 
time to be quite certain that 1 do not love you." 

" It was all for you, — Adlersruhe," the count urged, as though 
the statement that she did not care for him was of no consequence. 
"We would make such a beautiful castle of it, like the Isola Bella 
or Linderhof or Herrenchiemsee." 

" I have already asked you, count, as a personal favor not to 
restore Adlersruhe." 

" You do not care for it ? Then an assent mi^ht be established 
there when our rights have been proved, — an expensive thing to do, 
but worth the while, — to collect annual rents from the peasants. 
It would make a fine income, and you could live where you would." 

" Speak no more of it," Dorothy replied, somewhat provoked ; 
" I will not help you to trouble those honest people, and I beg you 
to let them alone. Meantime, count, if I thought that you cared 
for me in the least, I should be very sorry to give you pain ; but 
as I cannot flatter myself that such is the case, I can only wish you 
a pleasant journey, and bid you good-by." 

The count raised his eyebrows slightly and bowed ; and Dorothy 



220 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

hurried into the house, excited, indignant, and yet experiencing a 
spice of satisfaction that she had had her opportunity. Valerie's 
father stood at the open window, from which he had witnessed 
the scene. " I think I understand the meaning of the little tableau 
which has just been acted before me," he said not unkindly ; " you 
have refused Count Farniente ? " 

" Yes, sir." 

" Sensible girl ! Will it offend you if I tell you that I fancy his 
interest in you to have been prompted by monetary considerations ? " 

" I can well believe you." 

" Read this letter, which the young man neglected to take with 
him, and I think it will convince you if you have any lingering 
doubts on the subject. You need not return it. I have no use 
for it. You American girls have my profound admiration. I only 
wish American young men were as satisfactory." 




CHAPTER XII. 

AN EXCURSION IN THE BAVARIAN AND AUSTRIAN TYROL. — THREE 
BAVARIAN CASTLES. —THE ZILLERTHAL. — HOME AGAIN. 

FTER the departure of Count Farniente, Papa 
von Hohenberg experienced so great a satisfac- 
tion that he proposed to celebrate the event by 
a driving-trip through the Bavarian and Austrian 
Tyrol. " You have seen nothing as yet," he said, 
. " of our beautiful Tyrolese lakes, which so far ex- 
ceed those of Italy. The frauleins Dorothy and Elsie wish to see 
the Passion Play. Very good; the mother and I have not seen it; 
Valerie can probably endure a repetition. We will go first to Ober 
Ammer^au, and from there we will drive to Linderhof and Neu 
Schwanstein, — two castles built by Ludwig II., the mad king of 
Bavaria. Then I think we will send the carriage home, and go 
by rail to Munich ; and after a brief glance at the sights of the 
city, visit the Chiemsee, — to my mind the most charming of the 
Tyrolese lakes, — and so circle round and back to Innsbruck." 

" Delightful ! " exclaimed Dorothy and Elsie in a breath. " De- 
lightful ! " echoed Valerie ; " and you dear, good father, as we come 
back you must stop at Jenbach to let us visit your fishing-chalet on 
the Achensee, and then we must explore the Zillerthal as far as 
Zell. The Zillerthal is the most characteristic valley of Tyrol. 
Nowhere is the costume so pretty or so universally worn ; and all 
the Zillerthal people are born musicians. " 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



" Very well, little daughter, our itinerary is then decided upon, 
and I think we can extract some amusement from it, nicht wahr? 
So away and pack your knapsacks, for we must travel light weight, 

and can carry no trunks." 1 
The plan was carried 
out as proposed. Again 
at Ober Ammergau Vale- 
rie gazed on the rapt face 
of Mary, the beautiful 
youthful countenance of 
John, and saw the sacred 
drama unfold itself before 
her, with no diminution 
of interest. The other 
girls were also profoundly 
impressed. 

" I am glad that my 
essay is finished and sent," 
Dorothy said, "for I could 
not combine the feelings 
which I have just expe- 
rienced with that coldly 
critical review." 

The drive from Ober 
Ammergau to Linderhof 
was a short and charming 
mary. one, following the course 

of the Ammer to the val- 
ley of Graswang, then plunging into the woods, and emerging on 
a little height, which afforded a beautiful view of mountains crowned 
by the white summit of the Zugspitze, which has been called the 
princess of Bavarian mountains. 

1 See map on cover lining for all places mentioned in the narrative. 




EXCURSION IN THE BAVARIAN AND AUSTRIAN TYROL. 223 

In this lonely but beautiful spot Ludwig II., who had a mania 
for building, took a fancy to build a chateau in the style of Louis XV., 
taking for his model Madame Pompadour's pavilion at Bellevue. 

But Ludwig, although madly devoted to architecture, had not the 
best of taste ; and instead of following strictly the charming model 
which he had at first proposed, he introduced in the chateau of 
Linderhof many details taken from the pompous style of Louis XIV. 
Opposite the chateau a huge staircase leads to a little Greek temple ; 
grottos and statues in zinc, fountains and artificial cascades, show 
that the gardens of Versailles were in his mind. The interior of 
the chateau shows other imitations of that grandiose palace. The 
magnificent bed with its balustrade of gilded wood, which at Ver- 
sailles is quite in keeping in its stately gallery, is here crowded into 
an ordinary room, while a suite of small rooms filled with rich 
furniture and bric-a-brac were rendered insignificant by their obvious 
imitation of those interminable royal apartments in whose grand 
spaces the eye and the foot of the tourist are alike wearied. 

Another bizarre fancy of the poor demented king was to re- 
produce the blue grotto of Capri in his grounds. A cave was exca- 
vated by his orders in the mountain. Pasteboard stalactites depend 
from the roof, electric lights shed a blue tinge upon the artificial 
lake, and at the extremity of the cave a painting like a drop-scene at 
the theatre represents Tannhauser on the Venusberg. This cave 
was a favorite resort of the king ; and he spent many hours floating 
in a little boat upon the lake, costumed in imitation of Lohengrin, 
and listening to an invisible orchestra. 

Dorothy was deeply interested in the poor king's folly. " It was 
only a desire which we all possess carried to excess, " she said, — "a 
love of beauty, right in itself, but diverted into the selfish wish to 
surround ourselves with beautiful objects, instead of striving to make 
life beautiful for others." 

" In my opinion," said Count von Hohenberg, " he failed in his 



224 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

desire of creating here anything beautiful ; and he himself recognized 
the incongruities of this little palace, and strove to remedy them 
in two other castles to which I intend to take you. Ludwig had 
a passionate admiration for the memory of the Grand Monarque 
Louis XIV.; he felt himself akin to that old piece of bombast and 
magnificence, and would have resembled him if he could. He was 
also profoundly influenced by the operas of Wagner. You have seen 
how the two tastes were mingled at Linderhof. His architect in- 
duced him to separate them, and to build a commemorative castle 
to each, — Herrenchiemsee, a better copy of Versailles, and Neu 
Schwanstein, a castle after Wagner's own heart." 

Away in the southeast corner of Suabia lies the Swan country, 
a district famous for its ancient legends of knights and minstrels. 
Here in the old castle of Hohenschwangau, or in another still older 
building on the same site, the somewhat mythical character of 
Lohengrin is said to have lived. ^ 

King Ludwig had frequently visited this romantic spot. Com- 
pletely carried away by the operas of Wagner, which had revived 
the old legends so much loved by poets and romancers such as 
Uhland and Grimm, the king determined to build near the old 
castle another which should be a fitting monument to the tradition- 
ary past. The castle of Neu Schwanstein is not amenable to the 
criticisms of incongruity or insignificance which are so painfully 
evident at Linderhof. The castle is in the Romanesque style of 
the Middle Ages. The castle of the Wartburg seems to have been 
its model. Though modern, it has the appearance of a mediaeval 
fortress. Heavy, gloomy, vast in its proportions, dignified and 
imposing, did we not know its history we could well believe it older 
than its neighbors, Hohenschwangau and Falhenstein. Within, all is 
in perfect harmony with this idea. The decorations, chiefly mural 
paintings, have a dark and sombre tone, as though touched by the 
hand of time ; and the furniture is rich, elegant, but in antique style, — 



EXCURSION IN THE BAVARIAN AND AUSTRIAN TYROL. 225 

carved oak, ancient armor, dull brocades, and faded tapestries, which 
jiave the air of having remained here for centuries. In the throne- 
room alone is there any attempt at a gay decoration of white and 
gold or light tints. In the other apartments a mediaeval mellow- 
ness and dusk, like the darkening varnish on a painting by the hand 
of an old master, gives a unifying touch to wrought-iron work, 
swinging lamps of corroded bronze, stained glass, Byzantine mosaics, 
and carved oak black as ebony. 

The girls wandered through the long halls and galleries, follow- 
ing the painter's delineation of the old legends, — of the Niebelungen, 
Lohengrin, and Tannhauser, the adventures of Siegfried and Gudrun. 
In the king's own apartments the early German poets were por- 
trayed with scenes from their principal works. Henri of Waldech, 
the first German translator of the ^Eneid, Gottfried of Strasburg, 
author of Tristan and Iseult, and Wolfram, who first translated the 
legend of Parsifal into poetry, Walther of the Vogelweid, the great 
Minnesinger, and Hans Sachs, the cobbler of Nuremburg. 

" This is better than that nondescript Linderhof, is it not ? " said 
the Count von Hohenberg. "This is really worth while, for every 
thing is in perfect taste." 

" Yes," Dorothy replied, " the taste displayed is unquestionable ; 
but was it really worth while to lavish wealth in this way merely to 
reproduce an imitation of the life of past ages. Would not Ludwig 
have made a better name for himself on the pages of history if he 
had 'served his present age ' with an equal ardor?" 

" Undoubtedly; and yet Neu Schwanstein remains a place of beauty 
which will always delight and educate the visitor, and so far it does 
serve a worthy purpose." 

At the little town of Fuessen the Count von Hohenberg dismissed 
his travelling-carriage, and the party sped away by train to Munich, 
where they spent a delightful week. By day they feasted their eyes 
on the treasures of art in the Alte and Neue Pinakothek in the 



226 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

Glass Palace and other exhibitions of this most art-loving of the Ger- 
man cities ; and in the evening they attended enchanting operas, lis- 
tening to the music of Beethoven, Mozart, and Wagner. It was a 
happy and valuable experience for all ; but Munich has been described 
in a previous volume of this series, and we must not linger in the 
quaint old city, but will accompany them to the Chiemsee, one of the 
most charming lakes in Bavaria. 

Dorothy had felt a peculiar interest in seeing the castles of the 
unhappy king of Bavaria, for Count Farniente had mentioned them 
when he spoke of the possibilities at Adlersruhe. It was true that 
to convert the ruined burg into anything like one of these royal 
chateaus would require a royal purse far deeper than the Chain 
Lightning Mines could fill ; but even if her revenues had been 
unlimited, Dorothy knew that it would give her no pleasure to 
expend them in this way. The gratification of his expensive caprices 
had given Ludwig II. no real satisfaction; monomaniac and misan- 
thrope, he committed suicide at last by drowning himself in the 
pretty lake of the Starnberg. 

The palace of Herrenchiemsee is less pleasing to a cultivated 
taste than the castle of Neu Schwanstein. Three islands dot the 
southern expanse of the Chiemsee. On one of these, Herrenwbrth, 
stood in former days a monastery, and on another, Frauenwbrth, a 
nunnery, for noble lords and ladies, while the third island was used 
as a vegetable garden for both. The boat left our party on 
Herrenworth. There was a little restaurant near the landing, where 
they refreshed themselves with a luncheon consisting principally of 
fruit, and then walked to the splendid palace, a second Versailles, 
transported as though by magic to this charming spot. The lovely 
lake lies in .the centre of an enchanting panorama of Tyrolese and 
Bavarian mountains. Nature has done enough here, and the 
palace of Louis XIV. seems entirely out of place, with its basins 
and fountains of Fortune, of Glory, and of Latona, which never play, 



EXCURSION IN THE BAVARIAN AND AUSTRIAN TYROL. 229 

and its long succession of magnificent apartments built by a mad 
king, and now unoccupied. There were the Salle des Gardes, pre- 
cisely as at Versailles; the Ante-chambers; the Salon de l'CEil de 
Bceuf, with a statue of the Grand Monarque, who might be consid- 
ered the patron saint of poor Ludwig; a royal bed-chamber, which 
alone cost nearly a million dollars, with hangings heavy with silver 
embroidery ; a " galerie des Glaces." nearly two hundred and fifty feet 
in length, and long halls devoted to War and to Peace. 

All was magnificent and splendid. The eye wearied with the 
display of gold and silver, flashing mirrors, and brilliant cut-glass 
lustres, dropping like Aladdin's gems from the ceiling. Gorgeous, 
showy decoration had done its utmost ; the sheen of satin, the luxu- 
rious pile of sumptuous velvets and plushes, brocades flaunting all 
the colors of all the tulips, furniture of gilded wood and ormolu, 
cut-glass cabinets displaying collections of jewels, and costly curios, 
surfeited the senses. 

It seemed to Dorothy that vain-glorious pomp and ostentation 
had here achieved its triumph ; and as she walked through the 
empty-sounding galleries, the words of the preacher — " vanity of 
vanities" — seemed written over all. 

Standing in the dining-room, the guide showed them the crack 
in the floor, and explained how the table sank and rose between 
each course for a change of service, for Ludwig could not endure the 
presence of servants. Dorothy turned to Elsie, and said irrelevantly, 
showing that her thoughts were far away, " How do you suppose 
I can get John to use my money in his new scheme for aiding 
emigrants? I shall write him to sell every bit of my Chain Light- 
ning stock, and invest the proceeds in the other enterprise." 

From the Chiemsee the Count von Hohenberg would have liked 
to take them to the Koni^ssee and the other more celebrated lakes 
of this region ; but Valerie was anxious to show her friends her 
beloved Zillerthal, and Time was on the wing. 



230 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



They left the railroad at Jenbach, and proceeded up the valley 
to Zell in a lumbering stage. They travelled slowly; but it was 
pleasant to enjoy at their leisure the wild beauty of the scenery. 
Pine forests covered the slopes of the near mountains, and in the 
distance the grand slopes of the Gerlos were visible. 




KONIGSSEE. 

The inhabitants of the Zillerthal travel more than other Tyrolese. 
Bands of singers and players have made their way over their own 
and other lands, and have spread the reputation of this vivacious, 
music-loving clan. A favorite song of theirs is a pathetic lament of a 
Tyrolese for his dead wife. This never fails to draw tears from the 
eyes of a sympathetic audience ; each verse ends with the words — 

" Wenn ich zu meinem Kinde geh, 
In seinem Aug die Mutter seh." 

(In my child my comfort lies, 
I see his mother in his eyes.) 

To the accompaniment of the zither this simple song is inexpressibly 
touching. 



EXCURSION IN THE BAVARIAN AND AUSTRIAN TYROL 23 1 

At Zell the girls attended one of the " Bauern Komedien," in 
which the actors were all simple peasants, though the parts they 
took were those of lords and ladies. The play was called " Adolf 
von Fliehburg," and its plot was founded upon a legend of one of 
the noble houses of the neighborhood. 

" Is it not a little singular," Elsie remarked, " that these peasants 
should delight in depicting the lives of nobles, and in strutting about 
in slashed doublets with rapiers at their side, while Valerie, a lady 
born, always loved at Vassar to play the part of a peasant-maiden ? " 

" It is very natural," Count von Hohenberg replied. " We all 
like to get away from ourselves ; but such playing is dangerous, too, 
if it is allowed to mix with the sober realities of our lives." 

Valerie colored. Her little comedy had been pleasant while it 
lasted, but had she hopelessly tangled her life in playing with it 
thus ? Where was Gilbert Austin, and why had he not accepted 
her father's courtesies ? 

On their return from the Zillerthal they stopped for a day or 
two at a little country-house which her father owned on the Achensee, 
and to which he sometimes came to enjoy the fishing. Two old 
servants of the family lived near, and were ready to put it in order 
at a moment's notice. 

They were floating one day on the lovely little Achensee, their 
Zillerthal boatman sinsfinsc for them the beautiful sons: " O Tannen- 
baum," so popular, and so appropriate in this region. 

" O Tannenbaum ! O Tannenbaum ! 
Wie griin sind deine Blatter ! 
Du bliih'st nicht nur zur Sommerzeit 
Du bliih'st auch wenn es friert und schneit! 
O Tannenbaum ! O Tannenbaum ! 
Wie griin sind deine Blatter." 1 

1 Longfellow has given a charming translation of this old song. 

" O hemlock tree ! O hemlock tree ! how faithful are thy branches ! 
Green not alone in summer time, 
But in the winter's frost and rime ! 
O hemlock tree ! O hemlock tree ! how faithful are thy branches ! " 



232 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



As they drew near a village on the shore opposite their resi 
dence, Valerie noticed a pedestrian sitting in front of a little inn. 
There was something very familiar in the tall, well-made figure, and 

she recognized it from a dis- 
tance. So did the other 
girls, for Dorothy exclaimed, 
" There is Mr. Gilbert Aus- 
tin ! " while he arose at the 
same instant and waved his 
hat. 

The landing was at a lit- 
tle distance from the inn, 
and Dorothy and Elsie 
walked back to meet the 
young consul. Valerie stood 
still and waited. " How odd 
that we should find you 
here, Mr. Austin!" said Do- 
rothy. " Madame von Ho- 
henberg told us that you had 
been invited to join our par- 
ty, but that you had declined 
on account of professional 
duties, and we all thought 
that a very flimsy excuse." 
" I ran out only for the 
day," Gilbert stammered, walking on with them toward Valerie. 

" And how is your father ? " Elsie asked. " Valerie said he vis- 
ited them quite often before we arrived. I hope we have not fright- 
ened the judge away; we should so like to meet him again." 

" Have you never met Miss von Hohenberg ? " Dorothy asked, 
as she saw Gilbert fix a questioning glance upon that young lady. 







AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 



EXCURSION IN THE BAVARIAN AND AUSTRIAN TYROL. 



23; 



" I am so glad to introduce you. Valerie, this is the Mr. Austin 
whom we met in Lucerne." 

Valerie was perfectly self-possessed. She inclined her head 
slightly, and remarked, " I am glad at last to have the pleasure of 
meetinsr Mr. Austin." 

The young man was thunder-struck ; 
for a moment he could not utter a word. 
Then he murmured, " It is impossible! 
pardon me, but the likeness is very 
striking. I fancied for the moment that 
I had met Miss von Hohenberg be- 
fore." 

" And Mr. Austin is not mistaken." 

" Diena ! " he exclaimed, springing 
impulsively forward ; but Valerie raised 
the umbrella with which she was play- 
ing, and held it like a bar at arm's 
length before her. He placed his hands 
on hers, and spoke rapidly and exult- 
antly. " Diena, child, I would know 
you in any disguise. Ah, young ladies, 
it was a capital joke to dress this little 
peasant-girl as a lady and introduce 
her to me ; but I forgive you the trick, 
I am so happy to find her again." 

" There is something here that we do not quite understand," said 
Dorothy. " Elsie dear, it seems that our presence is not needed ; " 
and the two girls stepped briskly back toward the boat. 

" Diena my darling," continued Gilbert, " I looked for you every- 
where in Innsbruck, and finally I wrote Mrs. Annas to know where 
to find you. She replied that you had returned to your own people. 
That was not very definite, and I have been searching the Ziller- 




'SHE WAS PERFECTLY SELF- 
POSSESSED." 



234 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

thai for you for days. How did you happen to fall in with these 
American young ladies? Do you know you look remarkably pretty 
as they have dressed you ? I had no idea that you would bear the 
change so well. If my father could only see you as you look now, 
he would withdraw every objection." 

"Judge Austin and I are already very good* friends," Valerie 
replied ; " it remains to be seen whether my father will approve of 
you." 

Gilbert Austin started back aghast. " Am I insane ? " he asked. 
" What does this mean ? " 

"That this is no masquerade; and that I am really and truly 
Valerie von Hohenberg." 

"And you were only amusing yourself with me at Ober Ammer- 
gau ?" he asked savagely. 

" I cannot deny, Mr. Austin, that you were amusing." 

" Then all I can say is, that you trifled with an honest heart." 

" Pardon me, Mr. Austin. I have not implied that anything I 
may have said in the character of Diena was insincere. I have a 
home here on the Achensee, to which I now invite you, though 
how you will make your peace with my father for your avoidance 
of us at Innsbruck I am not certain." 

" Diena, do you not see that it was because I was true to 
you that I did not care to meet Miss von Hohenberg ? " 

" The task will be to make my father believe that ; but I will 
try. That is our chalet across the lake. Come and dine with us. 
No, I don't mean that you are to come with us now; wait until we 
have prepared Father to meet you. There will be a plate laid for 
you; drop in at five minutes past six precisely. The soup will then 
have been served, and Father is another man after he has eaten his 
soup. He declares that soup is the overture of the dinner, and it 
prepares him for any drama." 

The soup that day was the count's favorite, — a compound of cab- 



EXCURSION IN THE BAVARIAN AND AUSTRIAN TYROL. 235 

bage and sausages not delectable to a western taste, but so hot and 
rich that the count helped himself twice, and listened with com- 
placency while Valerie explained the little comedy. " It has ended 
better than it might have done," he grumbled. " Still, I am not 
inclined to let that young man off too easily. He had no business 
to treat my advances so cavalierly, no matter what the attractions of 
that Zillerthal girl ; and Valerie," he added very seriously, " let this 
be the last of carrying amateur theatricals into real life. What begins 
with comedy is very likely to end in tragedy, and one's ideas of 
truth are apt to be sadly warped. The simple truth, my girl, is the 
best guide for lovers as well as for every one else ; and you deserve to 
suffer a little for the pranks you have played." 

Gilbert Austin suffered more. All of his supercilious condescen- 
sion loomed before him in its colossal proportions. " What a donkey 
I have been!" he said to himself; "how can I ever endure her 
raillery ? " 

His former sins were visited upon him but in one instance. 
When he pleaded that the wedding might be set for an early date, 
Valerie brought up his unfortunate remarks at Ober Ammergau in 
reference to her education. 

" I insist on the few years necessary to prepare me for my future 
position," she said smilingly; "I want to return with the girls and 
graduate at Vassar before I think of marriage." And from this 
resolution he found it impossible to move her. 

When Gilbert informed his father that he had found Diena, the 
judge was at first unwilling to see her; but when the facts in the 
case were made known, the happiness of the old gentleman was 
delightful to witness. 

He presented his son with a charming cabinet portrait of Valerie, 
which he had framed in a little shrine of Tyrolese wood-carving. 
On the inner side of the little door he inscribed Lord Tolloller's 
appeal in " Iolanthe " : — 



236 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

" Spurn not the nobly born 

With love affected ; 
Nor treat with virtuous scorn 

The well-connected. 
High rank involves no shame ; 
We boast an equal claim 
With her of humble name 

To be respected." 

Dorothy smiled when she was shown it, and said to Elsie, " ' An 
equal claim,' yes, — but no more. Madame de Charriere held a very 
pretty ideal of the old noblesse, when she described them as men 
' who more strongly than others feel themselves obliged to be brave, 
disinterested, and true ; men who think they could not possibly do 
a mean thing, and who believe they have received from their ances- 
tors — and who hold themselves bound to transmit to their children — 
a certain flower of honor, and who do not know to what length they 
would go rather than see it destroyed or disgraced.' It was a charm- 
ing ideal of nobility, but it is not true. Human nature is nearly 
the same everywhere. I have the pleasure of knowing one true 
nobleman who could not do a mean thing ; but he possesses no title, 
while even Madame Charriere herself could not claim that her 
rhapsody fits Count Farniente." 

The vacation months had glided swiftly by, and the three girls, 
accompanied by Aunt Jane, returned to America. 

As the steamer entered New York harbor in the very early 
morning, the stewardess tapped at Elsie's stateroom. " If you please, 
miss, there is a gentleman on deck who is very anxious to see you." 

'•' A gentleman ! " Elsie exclaimed, her surprise struggling with 
her drowsiness. 

" Yes, miss ; he came down to Staten Island on a tug, and came 
on board as soon as the health-officer would permit. He must have 
been waiting to hear that the steamer had been sighted. He seems 
to be in a state of mind, for he is walking the deck impatient like." 



EXCURSION IN THE BAVARIAN AND AUSTRIAN TYROL. 



^37 



Elsie dressed hurriedly and hastened up the stairs. It was John, 
as she had suspected ; but such a demoralized John that she scarcely 
recognized him. " What is the matter ? " she asked, as she caught 
sis;ht of his white face and knotted brows. 

" Gone to smash ! " he replied. 

" The Chain Lightning mine ? " 

" Yes ; the vein petered out suddenly. There is no more silver, 
and the stockholders have nothing but a hole in the ground." 

" Poor Dorothy ! " 

" Yes, poor child ! I am nearly crazy when 
I think of her." 

" Too bad that she would not let you sell 
when the stock was up so high." 

" If she had, some one else would have 
suffered tremendously ; and I am mistaken in 
Miss Dorothy if she would have liked that." 

" Has she lost everything ? " 

" No ; I sold for her when the first rumors 
began to be circulated, and the stock had be- 
gun to go down. I realized ten thousand dol- 
lars, just the amount she put in, so that her original investment is 
safe." 

" Then it is n't so bad after all." 

" Mr. Thorne does not blame me ; indeed, he thinks I did well 
to rescue this brand from the burning. But that poor child! after 
she has had her expectations raised by the belief that she is the 
possessor of a fortune, how will she bear it ? " 

" You don't know Dorothy. She will bear it magnificently." 

" But it may compromise her future. Will the count hold to his 
engagement when he hears of this crash ? " 

" The count ! What do you mean ? Who told you anything 
about the count ? " 




JOHN DEMORALIZED. 



238 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 

" Mrs. Irving wrote me last summer asking the exact amount of 
Dorothy's fortune. She gave as the reason for her investigation that 
a grand marriage was planned for Miss Dorothy; but she admitted 
very frankly that this marriage was entirely contingent upon money." 

" And you believed that Dorothy would marry for rank ! Oh, 
John, John ! what a goose you are ! I am happy to inform you that 
Dorothy distinctly and unequivocally refused the count ; and I have 
reason to believe, you dear old blunderhead, that it is because she 
loves some one else ; and that some one else is — " 

A great light of joy flashed over John's face, and went out. 

" Hush, Elsie ! I am a penniless man." 

" Penniless? Why, you are just as well off as she is. You wrote 
me that you sold your shares in the mine for ten thousand dollars." 

" So I did ; but you see I — circumstances induced me to reinvest 
in it." 

" You bought Chain Lightning after it had begun to go down, 
when you were selling Dorothy's stock ? John, you can't deceive 
me. It was Dorothy's stock that you bought because no one else 
would buy it, to save her from utter failure." 

" At the time that Dorothy's stock was sold, there were plenty 
of buyers, who would have taken it at that price." 

" Then why d\dyo?i buy it ? — for I know you did." 

" Elsie, I will confide in you if you will promise not to betray me. 
I found out to a certainty that the end had come before the general 
public knew it. I went down into the depths of the mine with the 
chief engineer, the government assayer, and a committee of our 
stockholders sent to investigate the truth. We were pledged to 
secrecy at that time, but we knew that the announcement must be 
made public. I had Dorothy's shares in my possession, and I could 
have sold them twenty times before it was known that they were 
valueless ; but selling them with the knowledge that I had to an 
ignorant speculator would have made me a thief. I sold them at 



EXCURSION IN THE BAVARIAN AND AUSTRIAN TYROL. 239 

their quoted value in the market to a man who knew what he was 
buying." 

" To yourself ? " 

" What else was there to do ? I saved Dorothy's original invest- 
ment, and I saved my own honor." 

" John, you are the noblest fellow in all the world." 

" No, Elsie. If you only knew me at my worst ! When the 
knowledge that the stock was worthless first flashed upon me, and I 
thought that this would break off the engagement which I supposed 
existed between her and the count, I was glad, — Elsie, despise me, — 
I was wickedly glad. But I conquered myself; and if it had been 
in my power to have bought the stock at its highest fictitious 
value in order to save her from disappointment or mortification, 
I would have done it. But I could not do this, and it was the fear 
that this partial failure would be a dreadful blow to her which 
has worn on me." He mopped his damp brow energetically, and 
drew a long breath. " I am glad she did not want to marry the 
count," he said ; " but, Elsie, remember you have sworn never to 
betray my secret about the stocks." 

" Never, John, if you will walk right up like a man and propose, 
and if Dorothy accepts. Otherwise I shall be so angry that I can- 
not be responsible for my actions." 

Elsie never told the secret 

Strange to say, neither Dorothy nor Valerie were awarded the 
prize for the essay on the Ober Ammergau Passion Play. Another 
Vassar s^irl carried off the honor ; but neither of the skirls envied 
her as they would have done earlier in the year, for new interests 
now absorb them. 

The Society for Aiding Emigrants in Finding Employment is 
established with John as its president, and Judge Austin, Mr. Thome, 
Count von Hohenberg Mr. Bruce, and many others as its stock- 



240 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN THE TYROL. 



holders; and Consul Gilbert Austin is one of its foreign associate 
managers. Adlersruhe has not been restored, and the count is 
still waiting for an American heiress who will take it with all its 
encumbrances. Next year, after our girls graduate, there is to be 
a double wedding; but all of this is quite outside the story of 
Three Vassar Girls in the Tyrol. 



THE END. 



CELEBRATED WAR STORIES. 

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Or Four Years of Fighting. A record of personal observation with the Army and Navy 
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MY DAYS AND NIGHTS ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 

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FOLLOWING THE FLAG. 

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MY DAYS AND NIGHTS ON THE BATTLEFIELD. 

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Any volume sold separately, I - 2 S 

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CHATTERBOX FOR 1891. 

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LITTLE ONES ANNUAL, 

Illustrated Stories and Poems for the 
ip Little Ones Edited by William T. Adams 

, , x (Oliver Optic). This beautiful volume con- 

sists of original stories and poems by the 
very best writers of juvenile literature, care- 
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with 370 entirely original illustrations, drawn 
WKsBmwK&B mh,, , X expressly for the work by the most cele- 

JjjL brated book illustrators in America, and 
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^r^-i^^=3S!3^_l^^£:_ the superintendence of George T. Andrew. 

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OLIVER OPTIC'S ANNUAL, 1891, 

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SCHOOLBOYS OF ROOKESBURY ; 

Or, The Boys of the Fourth Form. An entertaining story of the mishaps and adventures of several bovs during a term 
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i vol., small quarto, illuminated board cover $1.25 

QUEEN HILDEGARDE ; 

By Laura E. Richards, author of " Four Feet, Two Feet, and No Feet" A new edition of this popular girl's 
book, — a second " Little Women, " —containing nineteen illustrations from new and original drawings. 

1 vol., small quarto, illuminated board covers . $1.50 

" JV e should like to see the sensible, heroine loving girl in her early teens who would not like this book. Not to like 
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THE DAYS OF CHIVALRY; 



Or, Page, Squire and Knight. A highly interesting and instructive, historical romance of the Middle Ages. Edited by 
W. H. Davenport Adams, author of " Success in Life, " "The Land of the Incas, " etc. Thoroughly illustrated 
with 113 drawings. 

1 vol., small quarto, illuminated board covers $1.50 

THE RED MOUNTAIN OF ALASKA . 

By Willis Boyd Allen. An exciting narrative of a trip through this most interesting but little known country, with 
accurate description of the same. Full of adventures, vividly portrayed by choice, original illustrations, by F. T. 
Merrill and others. 

1 vol., 8vo, cloth, gilt $2.50 

l ' It throws ' Robinson Crusoe \ the 'Swiss Family Robinson', and all those fascinating phantasies, hopelessly 
into the shade, and will hold many a boy spellbound, through many an evening, 0/ many a winter. " — Chicago 
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HUNTING IN THE JUNGLE 

With Gun and Guide. From Les Animaux Sauvages, by Warren F. Kellogg. An exciting and amusing series 
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OUR NEW WAY 'ROUND THE WORLD. 

By Charles Carleton Coffin, author of "The Story of Liberty, " "The Boys of '61, " " Following the Flag, " 
" The Boys of '76, " " Winning His Way, " " My Days and Nights on the Battlefield, " etc., etc. A new revised 
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1 vol., Svo, chromo-lithographed board covers $i-7S 

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TRAVELS IN MEXICO. 

By F. A. Ober. A brilliant record of a remarkable journey from Yucatan to the Rio Grande Historic ruins, tropic 
wilds, silver hills are described with eloquence. No country possesses so rich a field for the historian, antiquarian, 
fortune-hunter, and traveller. 
1 vol., Svo, chromo-lithographed board covers ............. $1.75 

1 vol , Svo, cloth, gilt, .................. 2 50 

DICKENS'S CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 

Holiday edition, with 100 fine illustrations, by De Neuville, Emile Bayard, F. Lix, and others. 

1 vol., Svo chromo-lithographed board covers *'-75 

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THE YOUNG MOOSE HUNTERS. 

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1 vol., small quarto, illuminated board covers J 1.50 

SIX GIRLS. 

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HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES. 

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FEATHERS, FURS AND FINS; 

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animals, both wild and domestic, with illustrations drawn by the best artists, and engraved in the finest possible style 
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The Most Entertaining and Instructive, the Most Successful and Universally Popular Series 
of Books for the Young Ever Issued in America. 

Over Three Hundred Thousand Volumes of the Series have already been sold in this Country alone. 




it is, 

acaUon 



Zigzag Journeys in Australia; 

Or, a Visit to the Ocean World. Describing the wonderful 
resources and natural advantages of the fifth continent, 
giving an insight into the social relations of the people and 
containing stories of gold discoveries and of the animals 
peculiar to this fascinating country. 

i vol. , small quarto, illuminated board covers and 

linings, - $1.75 

1 vol., small quarto, cloth, bevelled and gilt, - 2.25 



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Zigzag Journeys in the Great North-West ; 

Or, a Trip to the American Switzerland. Giving an 
account of the marvelous growth of our Western Em- 
pire, with legendary tales of the early explorers. Full of 
interesting, instructive and entertaining stories of the New 
Northwest, the country of the future. 

Zigzag Journeys in the British Isles. 

With excursions among the lakes of Ireland and the hills 
of Scotland. Replete with legend and romance. Over 
100 illustrations. 

Zigzag Journeys in the Antipodes. 

This volume takes the reader to Siam, and with delightful 
illustration and anecdote, tells him of the interesting ani- 
mal worship of the country. Ninety-six illustrations. 

Zigzag Journeys in India; 

Or, the Antipodes of the Far East. A collection of Zenana 
Tales. With nearly 100 fine original illustrations. 

Zigzag Journeys in the Sunny South. 

In which the Zigzag Club visits the Southern States and 
the Isthmus of Panama. With romantic stories of early 
voyagers and discoverers of the American continent. 
Seventy-two illustrations. 



Zigzag Journeys in the Levant. 

An account of a tour of the Zigzag Club through Egypt 
and the Holy land, including a trip up the Nile/and visit 
to the ruins of Thebes, Memphis, etc. 114 illustrations. 

Zigzag Journeys in Acadia & New France. 

1 1 which the Zigzag Club visits Nova Scotia and Acadia — 
"the Land of Evangeline," — New Brunswick, Canada, 
the St. Lawrence, Montreal, Quebec, etc., with romantic 
stories and traditions connected with the early history of 
the country. 102 illustrations. 

Zigzag Journeys in Northern Lands. 

From the Rhine to the Arctic Circle. Zigzag Club in 
Holland, Relgium, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and 
Sweden, with picturesque views, entertaining stories, etc. 
119 illustrations. 

Zigzag Journeys in the Occident. 

A trip of the Zigzag Club from Boston to the Golden 
Gate ; including visits to the wheat-fields of Dakota, the 
wonders of the Yellowstone and Yosemite. 148 illustra- 
tions. 

Zigzag Journeys in the Orient. 

A journey of the Zigzag Club from Vienna to the Golden " 
Horn, the Euxine, Moscow, and St. Petersburg; contain- 
ing a description of the Great Fair at Nijni-Novgorod, etc. 
147 illustrations. 

Zigzag Journeys in Classic Lands; 

Or, Tommy Toby's Trip to Parnassus. An account of a 
tour of the Zigzag Club in France, Italy, Greece, Spain - 
and Portugal. 124 illustrations. 

Zigzag Journeys in Europe; 

Or, Vacation Rambles in Historic Lands. In which the 
Zigzag Club travels through England, Scotland, Belgium, 
and France ; with interesting stories and legends. 126 
illustrations. 



ESTES & LAURIAT, Publishers, Boston, Mass. 



THE FAmoOS VASSAL Glt^ll SERIES. 

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has extended throughout the English-speaking world." 



jtf&typmb 




Three Vassar Girls in the Tyrol. 

An entertaining description of the travels of our Vassar 
friends through this well-known country, giving an inter- 
esting account of the Passion Play at Ober Ammergau. 
Illustrated by " Champ" and others. 

i vol. , small quarto, illuminated board covers and 

linings, -------- $1.50 

1 vol., small quarto, cloth, bevelled and gilt, - 2.00 



Uniform in style and price with the above, the other 
volumes of the series can be had as follows: 

Three Vassar Girls in Switzerland. 

By Elizabeth W. Champney. An exceedingly inter- 
esting story interwoven with bits of Swiss life, historic 
incidents, and accounts of happenings at Geneva, Lu- 
cerne, and the Great St. Bernard. Illustrated by 
" Champ " and others. 

Three Vassar Girls in Russia and Turkey. 

During the exciting scenes and events of the late Turko- 
Russian war, with many adventures, both serious and 
comic. Profusely illustrated from original designs, by 
"Champ" and others. 

Three Vassar Girls in France. 

A story of ths siege of Paris. A thrilling account of ad- 
ventures when Germany and France were engaged in 
their terrible struggle. Ninety-seven illustrations by 
" Champ," Detaille, and De Neuville. 

Three Vassar Girls at Home. 

Travels through some of our own States and Territories, 
with many interesting adventures. Ninety-seven illus- 
trations by " Champ." 

Three Vassar Girls on the Rhine. 

Full of amusing incidents of the voyage and historic 
stories of the castles and towns along the route. 128 illus- 
trations by "Champ " and others. 



Three Vassar Girls in Italy. 

Travels through the vineyards of Italy, visiting all the 
large cities, and passing some time in Rome, in the Vati- 
can, the Catacombs, etc. 107 illustrations. 

Three Vassar Girls in South America. 

A trip through the heart of South America, up the Ama- 
zon, across the Andes, and along the Pacific coast to 
Panama. 112 illustrations. 

Three Vassar Girls in England. 

Sunny memories of a holiday excursion of three college 
girls in the mother country, with visits to historic scenes 
and notable places. Ninety-eight illustrations. 

Three Vassar Girls Abroad. 

The vacation rambles of three college girls on a European 
trip for amusement and instruction, with their haps and 
mishaps. Ninety-two illustrations. 

THE NEW SERIES. 

Great Grandmother' s Girls in New Mexico. 

By Elizabeth W. Champney. This is the second vol- 
ume of this delightful series describing incidents in the 
life of a quaint little maiden who lived in the time of the 
Spanish adventurers. Illustrated by " Champ." 
1 vol., Svo, chromo-lithographed board covers - $1.75 
1 vol., 8vo, cloth, gilt 2.50 

Great Grandmother's Girls in France. 

By Elizabeth VV. Champney. A charming volume for 
girls, consisting of romantic stories of the heroines in the 
early colonial days — their privations and courage. 
1 -vol., Svo, chromo-lithographed board covers - $1.75 
1 vol., Svo, cloth, gilt, ..---- 2.50 

" A beautiful volume and one that cannot fail to arouse 
intense interest." — Toledo Blade. 

" An excellent present for a boy or girl. "— Boston Tran- 
script. 



ESTES & LAURIAT, Publishers, Boston, Mass. 



THE FAMOUS "KNOCKABOUT CLUB" SERIES. 



''Delightful and wholesome books of stirring out-door adventure for healthy American 
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THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB ON THE SPANISH MAIN. 

By Fred A. Ober. In which the Knockabout Club visits Caracas, La Guayra, Lake Maracaibo, 
etc. Containing stories of the exploits of the pirates of the Spanish Main. Fully illustrated. 
I vol., small quarto, illuminated board covers and linings, - - - - $1.50 

1 vol., small quarto, cloth, bevelled and gilt, ...... $2.00 



Uniform in style and price with the above, the other volumes of the series can be had as follows : 

THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN NORTH AFRICA. 

By Fred A. Ober. An account of a trip along the coast of the Dark Continent, caravan 
journeys, and a visit to a pirate city, with stories of lion hunting and life among the Moors. 
Fully illustrated. 

THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN SPAIN. 

By Fred A. Ober. A panorama of Seville, the Guadalquivir, the Palaces of the Moors, the 
Alhambra, Madrid, Bull-fights, etc. Full of original illustrations, many full-page. 

THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN THE ANTILLES. 

By Fred A. Ober. A visit to the delightful islands that extend in a graceful line from Florida 
to South America, accompanied by a " Special Artist." 78 illustrations. 

THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN THE EVERGLADES. 

By Fred A. Ober. A visit to Florida for the purpose ef exploring Lake Okechobee, on which 
trip the boys encounter various obstacles and adventures with alligators, etc. 55 illustrations. 

THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN THE TROPICS. 

By C. A. Stephens. From the ice-fields of the North to the plains of New Mexico, thence 
through the " Land of the Aztecs," and the wonderful ruins of Central America, to the " Queen 
of the Antilles." 105 illustrations. 

THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB ALONGSHORE. 

By C. A. Stephens. A journey alongshore from Boston to Greenland, with descriptions of 
seal-fishing, Arctic- Scenery, and stories of the ancient Northmen. 137 illustrations. 

THE KNOCKABOUT CLUB IN THE WOODS. 

By C. A. Stephens. A boy's book of anecdotes and adventures in the wilds of Maine and 
Canada. An account of a vacation spent in healthy amusement, fascinating adventure, and 
instructive entertainment. 117 illustrations. 



ESTES & LAURIAT, Publishers, Boston, Mass. 



YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORIES 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

A concise history of Holland and Belgium, from the earliest times, in which the author goes over the ground 
covered by Motley in his standard histories of these most interesting countries, and brings the narrative down to 
the present time. By Alexander Young. 150 illustrations. 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF AMERICA. 

^rom the earliest times to the present. A new edition. With a chapter and additional illustrations on the Life and 
Death of President Garfield. Edited by H. Butterworth, author of "Zigzag Journeys." With 157 illustra- 
tions. Over 10,000 copies sold in one year. 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF MEXICO. 

Comprising the principle events from the sixth century to the present time By Fred. A. Ober, author of " Camps 

in the Caribbees." With 100 illustrations. 
The intimate relations of our country with Mexico, which the railroads and mines are developing, make this volume 

one of the most important in the entire series. 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 

By Nathan Haskell L)ole. With no illustrations. 

THE GREAT CITIES OF THE WORLD. 

YOUNG FOLKS* HISTORY OF LONDON. 

With graphic stories of its historic landmarks. By W. H. Rideing. With 100 illustrations. 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF BOSTON. 

By H. Butterworth, author of "Zigzag Journeys," etc. With 140 illustrations. 

CHARLOTTE M, YONGE. YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORIES. 

YOUNG FOLKS' BIBLE HISTORY. With 132 illustrations. 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF ENGLAND. With 60 illustrations by De Neuville, E. Bayard and others. 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF FRANCE. With 84 illustrations by A. De Neuville, E. Bayard and others. 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF ROME. With 1 14 illustrations. 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF GREECE. With 51 illustrations. 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF GERMANY. With 82 illustrations. 

YOUNG FOLKS' EPOCHS OF HISTORY. 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

A concise and impartial account of the lat; war, for young people, from the best authorities both North and South 
By Mrs. C. Emma Cheney. Illustrated with 100 engravings, maps and plans. 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
In Germany, France, England and other Countries By Fred H. Allen. A graphic account of the men 
and the movements by which the great religious revolution which resulted in the establishment of Protestantism 
was carried on, from the early centuries of Christianity to the end of the Reformation. Fully illustrated. 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE QUEENS OF SCOTLAND. 
These valuable books are condensed from Strickland's (Jueens of Scotland by Rosalie Kaufman, and are at once 
reliable and entertaining to both old and young folks. Fully illustrated. 2 vols., i6mo, cloth. . . S3. 00. 

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. 

From the Norman Conquest. Founded on Strickland's Queens of England. Abridged, adapted and continued to 
the present time. By Rosalie Kali-man. With nearly 300 illustrations. 3 vols., iGmo, cloth . $4.50. 

LIBRARY OF ENTERTAINING HISTORY. 

Edited by Arthur Gilman, M. A. 
INDIA. By Fannie Roper Feudge. With 100 illustrations, . . ... 

EGYPT. By Mrs. Clara Erskine Clement. With 108 illustrations, 
SPAIN. By Prof. James Herbert Harrison. With hi illustrations, 
SWITZERLAND. By Miss Harriet D. S. Mackenzie. With 100 illustrations, 
HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE, with i 75 illustrations, . 

All the above volumes are published as 16mos, in cloth, at $1.50 

ESTES St LHURIHT, Publishers, 
BOSTON, MASS. 



HOUSEHOLD NECESSITIES. 



socmii customs. 

New edition, reduced in price. Complete Manual of American Etiquette. By Florence 
Howe Hall, daughter of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. Handsomely printed, and neatly bound in 
extra cloth, gilt top, uncut. Small 8vo. - $1-7 5 

Do you always know just what to DO ? Do you know how to encourage Mrs. D. Lighf 
ful, accept and return her courtesies, as they deserve ; and politely but firmly avoid and defeat 
Mrs. Bore in her inroads on your privacy and more agreeable engagements ? If you do not, let us 
recommend for every social question the above entertaining and instructive book, or its new 
baby relative, "The Correct Thing," mentioned below, for with these two books, one can 
make no mistake in life, as every possible question may be answered from their combined 
wisdom. They are comprehensive, practical, reliable and authoritative. 

TflE COP^ECT TJ4IJSlG. 

By Florence Howe Hall, author of " Social Customs." i8mo. Very neatly bound in 

extra cloth, gilt top, - - - $0.75 

Same, Bound in full flexible morocco, gilt edges (in a box). $1.25 

This new manual is neatly printed in a size not too large to be slipped into the pocket; and 
is arranged so that one page reminds the reader that " It is the correct thing " to do this, 
while per contra the opposite page tells him that " It is not the correct thing " to do that. 
Its conciseness recommends it to many who would not take the time to master, any more compre- 
hensive manual. 

" It is, indeed, a treasure of good counsel, and, like most advice, it has the merit of not 
being expensive." — Montreal Gazette. 

PAYOR'S ^ITGJlEJSl cojvipflriiori. 

A Guide for All who would be Good Housekeepers. 

Handsomely printed, and very fully illustrated. Large 8vo. (nearly 1000 pages). Neatly 
bound in extra cloth or in waterproof binding. - - - $2.50 

^=" It is thoroughly practical ; it is perfectly reliable ; it is marvellously comprehensive ; 
it is copiously illustrated. It is, in short, overflowing with good qualities, and is just the book 
that all housekeepers need to guide them. 

Miss Parloa's new book has proved a remarkable success, and it could hardly have been 
otherwise. Exhaustive in its treatment of a subject of the highest importance to all, the result 
of years of conscientious study and labor upon the part of one who has been called "the apostle 
of the renaissance in domestic service," it could not be otherwise than 
welcome to every intelligent housekeeper in the land. 

"This is the most comprehensive volume that Miss Parloa has 
ever prepared, and, as a trusty companion and guide for all who are 
travelling on the road to good housekeeping, it must soon become a 

necessity No amount of commendation seems to do justice 

to it." — Good Housekeeper. 

PfllRIiOR'S fiEUl COOI^ BOOK AH& |WA^KETh 
HSLG GUIDE. 




Cloth. 



$1.50 



This is one of the most popular Cook Books ever printed, con- 
taining 1724 receipts and it^ms of instruction. The directions are clear 
and concise, and the chapters on marketing and kitchen furnishing 
very useful. 



ESTES St LHURIHT, Publishers, 



BOSTON, MASS. 



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